Sustainability of the mineral environmental licensing in Minas Gerais: case applied

ABSTRACT

The assessment of environmental impacts, introduced by the National Environmental Policy, has earned a place within the environmental licensing process, which is currently questioned due to its ineffectiveness to compensate nature for resources’ loss. This study aimed at technically and legally assessing the mineral environmental licensing process in the Region of Alto São Francisco, Minas Gerais, through history and current flow of processes, as well as by surveying data from Studies on Environmental Impact, and compliance with the Terms of Reference and applicable environmental law, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results showed that the environmental licensing process does not meet the needs for compensating the socioenvironmental impacts caused by activity and does not comply with the legal requirements that are mandatory in the process.

Keywords:
environmental licensing; study on environmental impact; term of reference