Contention, participation, and mobilization in environmental assessment follow-up: the Itabira experience

Abstract

This article analyzes the public participation and follow-up stages of the environmental assessment process to secure an operating license for an iron-ore mine in Itabira, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Vale, a major Brazilian mining company, eventually received authorization to begin operations in 2000, but only after making significant concessions to public demands on a variety of environmental and social conditions. In the years following the approval, Vale met several conditions regarding environmental cleanup, parks and infrastructure, water protection, and commitment to the local community. However, over time some of these activities were interrupted or aborted, while a number of conditions were never met. This article suggests that these weaknesses in follow-up were a consequence of the demobilization and retreat of the state and a parallel demobilization of civil society after 2000. The case demonstrates that state and public attentiveness can be episodic and suggests that high-profile agreements do not assure sustainable outcomes. Institutionalized participatory monitoring and management units appear necessary for continued environmental management that pursues long-term sustainability.

A missing pillar? Challenges in theorizing and practicing social sustainability: introduction to the special issue

“…A focus on how procedures affect substance ought to take into account a longitudinal perspective. Devlin & Tubino (2012) highlight instances of both success and failure in the very same case, but at different stages. The authors demonstrate how rising public mobilization/participation, in connection with certain enabling conditions, could bring about change in the environmental plan of a Brazilian mining company.…”

“…Second, articles in this special issue connect the notion of social sustainability to a variety of other social science perspectives, concepts, and theories including theories of scale (Klintman, 2012), notions of temporality (Devlin & Tubino, 2012;Hiedanpää et al 2012;Psarikidou & Szerszynski, 2012), moral economy and moral taskscape (Psarikidou & Szerszynski, 2012), human-nonhuman animal relations (Hiedanpää et al 2012), concepts of work related to green social enterprises (Osti, 2012), ecological modernization and transition theory (Jensen et al 2012), governance through bureaucratization (Casula Vifell & Thedvall, 2012), as well as social movement theory (Devlin & Tubino, 2012).…”

“…This has occurred within such diverse areas as urban and regional planning (Schlossberg & Zimmerman, 2003;Cuthill, 2009;Davidson, 2009;Dempsey et al 2011), fair trade certification (e.g., Taylor, 2004), forest certification (e.g., Klooster, 2010;Boström, 2011), organic agriculture (e.g., Shreck et al 2006), conventional agriculture (Nordström Källström & Ljung, 2005;Mancini et al 2008), as well as corporate social and environmental management, reporting, and responsibility (e.g., Sharma & Ruud, 2003;Bebbington & Dillard, 2009;Brown et al 2009). This special issue contributes to this trajectory first presenting a typology for organizing research on social sustainability (Murphy, 2012) and then featuring studies on alternative agrofood networks and practices (Psarikidou & Szerszynski, 2012), conflicts surrounding human-animal relations (Hiedanpää et al 2012), bureaucratization of fair trade and organic food policy making (Casula Vifell & Thedvall, 2012), sustainable tourism (Klintman, 2012), access to mobility (Cucca & Tacchi, 2012), green social cooperatives (Osti, 2012), sustainable buildings (Jensen, et al 2012), and participatory environmental monitoring of a Brazilian mining company (Devlin & Tubino, 2012).. These examples demonstrate some progress toward the realization of an integrative vision of sustainability in various sectors, but they also confirm many challenges.…”

What Does the Academic Research Say About Impact Assessment and Environmental Licensing in Brazil?

“…Citizen participation is also the topic of several papers based on case studies. A few major projects were not approved due to the action of organized citizens Yap, 2008;Tubino, 2012;Rothman, 2001). Other papers report criticism and shortcomings related to the current participation model, which calls for a public hearing to be conducted only after the EIS is filed for review by an environmental agency.…”

Impacts of nonstate, market-driven governance on Chilean forests

“…In addition, suppliers may be able to circumvent environmental agreements by segmenting markets and shipping production that fails to meet environmental standards to consumers with weaker environmental concerns (16). Even if initially effective, corporate commitments to environmental practices may wane as public attention turns elsewhere (17).…”