From weak politics to private policies: the role of the mining sector in the transformations of environmental policy in Minas Gerais State, Brazil (original) (raw)
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Vibrant, 2017
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Mining and Environmental Destruction in Minas Gerais: A Historical Comparison
Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia, 2021
The disasters caused by mining in Brazil, especially in the state of Minas Gerais, are a historical reality. Since the eighteenth century, when the gold exploration began in the area, there are records of impacts related to the activity, like the siltation of the rivers and the great floods that took place in the town of Mariana. Recently, in 2015 and 2019, the collapse of two tailings dams of iron ore mining caused the greatest socioenvironmental disasters recorded in Brazil's history in the mining sector. Even though the problems ensued by the impacts of mining have differed throughout time, this article strives to discuss something the disasters have in common: the power struggles created by them.
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Mariana Case: Environmental Disaster and Corporate Interests in Brazil
This paper outlines what is being considered the biggest environmental calamity in Brazil caused by an economic activity. By using data largely reported after the event, but also doing an analysis of the historical and political background as cause-related aspects, it explains that indiscriminate and unsustainable resources exploration tends to harm the whole ecosystem and the humans who depend on it. The mining in the ferriferous four-side region started more than two hundred years ago in a slavery era when the labour workforce did not benefit from the prosperity generated by gold exploitation. The commercial activity turned into iron ore, manganese, aluminium, lead, among others important metals that are exported to the world. However, the inequality gap remained and the environmental impact is progressively harming the population, air, soil, water resources and its marine life. Corporate interests represented by lobbying activities play a significant role in the “culture of corruption” in Brazilian’s political institutions. The consequences are felt by the most economically disadvantaged share of the society and, as a matter of fact, social and ecological responsibility are not properly taken in consideration by the companies which largely ignore the penalties set by governmental agencies. The change of mind to a sustainable development is needed but there is a long way to go in this respect.
Brazil's worst mining disaster: Corporations must be compelled to pay the actual environmental costs
Ecological Applications, 2017
In November 2015, a large mine-tailing dam owned by Samarco Corporation collapsed in Brazil, generating a massive wave of toxic mud that spread down the Doce River, killing 20 people and affecting biodiversity across hundreds of kilometers of river, riparian lands, and Atlantic coast. Besides the disaster's serious human and socioeconomic tolls, we estimate the regional loss of environmental services to be ~US$521 million per year. Although our estimate is conservative, it is still six times higher than the fine imposed on Samarco by Brazilian environmental authorities. To reduce such disparities between estimated damages and levied fines, we advocate for an environmental bond policy that considers potential risks and environmental services that could possibly be impacted by irresponsible mining activity. Environmental bonds and insurance are commonly used policy instruments in many countries, but there are no clear environmental bond policies in Brazil. Environmental bonds are likely to be more effective at securing environmental restitution than post-disaster fines, which generally are inadequate and often unpaid. We estimate that at least 126 mining dams in Brazil are vulnerable to failure in the forthcoming years. Any such event could have severe socialenvironmental consequences, underscoring the need for effective disaster-management strategies for large-scale mining operations.
A Political Agenda in Conflict with Environmental Protection: A Critical Policy Essay from Brazil
International Criminology, 2022
Current Brazilian policies on environmental protection have become a worldwide concern since President Bolsonaro’s election in 2018. Not only have his speeches been aggressive and critical of environmental protections, but many of his actual decisions have shown a very dangerous negligence of populations and interests affected by environmental harms. As a consequence, different environmental crises have plagued the country without any adequate response by public agencies or emergency plans to diminished harms. This essay uses a regulatory approach to demonstrate how the recent large withdrawal of environmental protection instruments in Brazil have supported a harmful and unlawful political agenda. First, we reconstruct the historical narrative of Brazilian environmental policy between the years 2018 and 2021, demonstrating through journalistic reports and social organizations’ alerts, how the speeches, actions and omissions of the Brazilian government may have contributed to the present environmental situation. Using an environmental justice perspective, we demonstrate a lack of legitimate influence on political decisions related to environmental protection. Subsequently, we discuss the existing legal instruments to respond to the political abuses in the Brazilian legal system, in order to demonstrate their insufficiency to deal with this scenario. Finally, we evaluate international criminal law as a possible answer to the ongoing environmental abuses in Brazil.
Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental
Objective: the objective of this article is to examine whether, and how, the foundations of the Socio-environmental State are concretized in the course of the decision-making process regarding the granting of environmental licenses for iron extraction activities in Minas Gerais. Theoretical framework: The research is based primarily on studies of the development of the Socio-environmental State, on the literature on environmental justice, and on environmental licensing. Method: the research is qualitative in nature, descriptive, and documentary research was carried out, in addition to the strategy of content analysis. Results and conclusion: the analyses indicate the ineffectiveness of environmental licensing as an instrument of State regulatory policy for environmental protection, a fact that compromises the effectiveness of the Socio-environmental State. Implications of the research: based on a critical analysis of the institutional arrangement of the licensing agency unde...
SSRN, 2019
The disruption of a mining tailings dam in Mariana, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, on November 13, 2015, ignited the alert for safety issues involving mining activity in Brazil. Even after this accident of huge proportions, Brazil experienced a new dramatic event with the rupture of a dam in the city of Brumadinho, in the same state of Minas Gerais. From these two episodes, the general objective of the present study is to analyze the incompatibility between the preservation of the environment and the economic development of the country in order to identify the Brazilian Social Environmental Law State that fails in its objective of preservation or the developmental state that favors economic growth at any cost. It emerged from the research carried out that the actions (and omissions) of the Brazilian public power in relation to the mining activity show a fundamental preoccupation with the economic development to the detriment of the aspects of environmental preservation and social quality. The methodology used to develop the research was the inductive method operationalized by the reference technique, categories, operational concepts and bibliographic research.
Large-scale environmental policy change: analysis of the Brazilian reality
Revista de Administração Pública
The Brazilian presidential elections of 2018 brought large-scale changes in the Brazilian environmental policy subsystem. The purpose of this article is to analyze these changes through the lenses of the Advocacy Coalition Framework - ACF. First, we introduced some of the main characteristics of this subsystem, then we presented a hemerographic analysis to describe and analyze the effects of four recent shocks in this subsystem. Two of these shocks were external: (i) the election of a new political elite in power that brought a clear discourse of denial of the relevance of environmental policy and (ii) calamitous environmental events that occurred in Brazil in 2019. The other two shocks were internal: (i) the capture of key positions and resources by dominant coalition members and (ii) the rise of conflict and polarization among the coalitions in the subsystem. The results showed: (i) the rise of a hyper-adversarial environmental policy subsystem; (ii) a realignment between non-domi...