Licenciamento ambiental na Paraíba: descentralização, entraves e possibilidades

Abstract

The environmental licensing acts as a tool where the government exercises its police power to preventively protect the environment. Nationally arises with the Law. 6.938/81, where it ranked as one of the instruments of the National Policy for the Environment and approved by the Federal Constitution of 1988, when given to the government and society the duty of caring for the environment. The municipality has historically been inactive in this context and is conquering its space legislatively with Complementary Law No. 140/2011 to exercise their environmental competencies. The SUDEMA is responsible for environmental licensing in the state of Paraíba, this model of centralized environmental management does not allow its performance meets efficiently and effectively the entire state. This article consists in the observation and analysis of the environmental licensing process and its decentralization in the state of Paraíba, to demonstrate the reality of this issue and contribute to the improvement of the same. To achieve this goal, the research was conducted with the public organizations of the state and municipalities of João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Patos e Cajazeiras, adopting as methodological investigation, the bibliographical and documentary research, the testimonial research, through testimonies and interviews with application a structured questionnaire, the participant observation and action research. Of the 223 municipalities in Paraíba, only 28 have environmental agencies and only 3 of them exercise environmental licensing, are they: João Pessoa, Campina Grande e Patos. These data are fundamental to the understanding of society in general and for the development of public policies that help the municipalization of the environmente of the form legitimate and effective.