Put: Leonardo Neri
The National Environmental Policy (PNMA) aims to preserve, improve and restore environmental quality conducive to life, aiming to ensure, in the country, conditions for socioeconomic development, national security interests and the protection of the dignity of human life, in accordance with article 2 of Law 6938 of 1981, which provides for the National Environmental Policy and institutes the National Environmental System.
The purpose of the Law is to regulate article 225 of the Federal Constitution, which establishes the environment as an ideal for social order, since everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced environment, a common good for the people and essential to a healthy quality of life, imposing on the Public Authorities and the community the duty to defend and preserve it for present and future generations.
In Brazil, environmental concerns first arose in 1980, due to Law 6803 of 1980, which provides for the basic guidelines for industrial zoning in critical pollution areas and, then, the National Environmental Policy was implemented, with the 1988 Constitution being the first in the country to specifically provide for a specific chapter on rules and guarantees.
It is important to highlight that environmental preservation is characterized as a third-dimensional human right, that is, rights that transcend the rights of each individual, as it is a good for the enjoyment of the community. Concern for the environment emerged in the mid-20th century, due to profound changes in society, on an international level and in the face of growing technological and scientific development.
Thus, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the right to an ecologically balanced environment, the PNMA aims to preserve, improve and recover the environment, making it the responsibility of the Public Authorities to preserve and restore essential ecological processes and provide for the ecological management of species and ecosystems; to preserve the diversity and integrity of the country's genetic heritage and to supervise entities dedicated to research and manipulation of genetic material; to define, in all units of the Federation, territorial spaces and their components to be specially protected, with alteration and suppression permitted only by law, prohibiting any use that compromises the integrity of the attributes that justify their protection; to require, in accordance with the law, for the installation of works or activities that could potentially cause significant degradation of the environment, a prior environmental impact study, which will be made public; to control the production, commercialization and use of techniques, methods and substances that pose a risk to life, quality of life and the environment; to promote environmental education at all levels of education and public awareness for the preservation of the environment; protect fauna and flora, prohibiting, in accordance with the law, practices that put their ecological function at risk, cause the extinction of species or subject animals to cruelty.
Thus, in order to achieve the objectives of the PNMA and guarantee everyone's right to an ecologically balanced environment through the mechanisms used by the Public Administration listed in article 9 of Law 6938 of 1981, the Policy also legislates on the creation of the National Environmental System and its main bodies (articles 6 to 8), the instruments to be used (articles 9, 17), the licensing of polluting or degrading activities (articles 10 to 12), and the accountability of offenders (articles 14 and 15).
One of the ways found by law, in addition to the duty of reparation being provided for in the constitutional text itself, to guarantee this right is to hold offenders accountable for damage caused to the environment and, it is through this law, that the actions of companies and the exploitation of the environment are monitored and limited, occurring in a manner conducive to environmental agencies.
Thus, since its entry into force, the PNMA, in an attempt to assist sustainable economic development by providing ways to control human activities that degrade the environment, providing for accountability for failure to comply with said standards, has brought advances in the Brazilian context, mainly with the formulation of policies aimed at encouraging the adoption of clean technology, as well as the creation of specially protected territorial spaces and special protection areas – such as permanent preservation areas, established by the Forest Code.
Despite the perception that environmental problems are worsening in the country, the damage caused to the environment would be more serious if laws, regulations and normative instructions did not exist. We know that reconciling economic development with the advance of environmental degradation is not an easy matter and it will always be necessary to improve control instruments and improve planning for the sector.