Unraveling Environmental Impact Assessment Practitioners in Brazil: Profile, Education and Perception of EIA Practice among CBAI Participants

Abstract

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practice demands interactions between different actors, and its effectiveness depends on how they respond to their own expectations, as well as the expectations of other actors and legal standards. Thus, EIA practitioners play an important role in improving this process. This study examines the profile of Brazilian EIA practitioners who participated in at least one edition of the Congresso Brasileiro de Avaliação de Impacto (CBAI - Brazilian Congress on Impact Assessment in English), as well as their perception of EIA practice within the country. It is a quantitative and qualitative research based on the premise that EIA practitioners would have participated in at least one of the first five congresses (CBAI) promoted by the Associação Brasileira de Avaliação de Impacto (ABAI - Brazilian Association for Impact Assessment in English). Data collection involved distributing an online questionnaire, available between September 26th and November 1st, 2022, to all 794 contacts registered at ABAI. A total of 217 responses were obtained, with participants comprising 48% men and 52% women, with the majority falling between 25 and 45 years of age. All respondents had studied EIA (through undergraduate or postgraduate courses, or in other contexts). Most participants had more than 10 years of experience working with EIA, primarily in consultancy and academia. Perceptions regarding the quality, problems, strengths and opportunities of Brazilian EIA practice generally aligned with the literature. Respondents tended to disagree with streamlining EIA and Environmental Licensing procedures and to agree with the necessity of implementing Strategic Environmental Assessment in Brazil. The results are important to understand who Brazilian EIA practitioners are and what this portion of EIA practitioners think.