MPF recommends revocation of municipal mining license – 02/17/2023 – Environment

The MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in Pará issued this Friday afternoon (17) a recommendation that the environmental licensing for gold mining cannot be granted by city halls. Today, Pará is the only state in the Amazon where this task has been assigned to municipal entities.

The MPF argues that the legislation determines that city halls can only promote the licensing of enterprises “that cause or may cause environmental impact at the local level”, but the damage caused by mining is too extensive and affects entire basins. Thus, the Public Prosecutor’s Office argues that conducting this process at the local level is unconstitutional.

Pará delegated this role to municipal entities in 2015, through a resolution of the State Council for the Environment that classified gold mining up to 500 hectares as a “local impact”. However, in response to a 2022 letter from the MPF, the State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainability would have informed that there are no technical or legal opinions that supported the decision.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office also points out that, as they are the weakest link in the federative entities, city halls are more subject to pressure from mining entrepreneurs.

The decision was based on a technical note prepared by ISA (Instituto Socioambiental) and WWF Brasil at the request of the MPF.

The request was motivated by an investigation opened last year, after the waters of Alter do Chão, in Santarém (PA), became muddy due to the mud that came from the mines in the Tapajós river basin. At the time, the projects that generated the tailings were more than 350 km away.

“This technical note came to corroborate some arguments that we already had: that the impacts caused by legal and illegal mining are extensive and cannot be limited to one location”, says Paulo de Tarso, Public Prosecutor in Pará. He adds that today mining is essentially mechanized, using equipment with the potential to cause significant environmental damage.

“We understand that the state of Pará is acting illegally when it authorizes municipalities to carry out environmental licensing for this type of activity”, he says.

The opinion of ISA and WWF points out that, depending on its location and the flow of watercourses, the impacts of gold mining can be micro-regional or regional. In the case of micro-regional impact, the competence for licensing would be state, and in the case of regional impact, the task would be federal.

The prosecutor also claims that it was found that the municipal secretariats do not have the apparatus to carry out the proper licensing. “Even the licenses issued are not inspected, there are no incursions into the field or environmental compensation. There is nothing that effectively protects the environment.”

Gustavo Geiser, a federal criminal expert stationed in Santarém, explains that the legislation defines the impact accepted for each activity and the role of licensing is to assess whether the enterprise fits these limits.

“In the case of mining, the tailings go beyond the sphere of the municipality. When the impact goes beyond the limits of the municipality, it is not up to the municipality to license”, he says. “And there is also a lot of pressure on the most fragile entity of the federation to release more undertakings”, points out Geiser.

He exemplifies this fragility with the case of the city of Itaituba in Pará. “Itaituba lives from mining. Then the city government will restrict mining licenses? It is a little fragile for the city hall to restrict the main source of income in the municipality.”

According to the technical note, Itaituba had 772 mining permits authorized between 1990 and 2021, concentrating 41% of the authorizations granted by the National Mining Agency in the period.

“We found that in the Tapajós basin there is a promiscuity between certain local politicians and businessmen. Sometimes these roles are even confused, and mayors benefit from the lax regulation of mining”, says Tarso.

“As if all the illegal mining was not enough, in the places where it is legal, it is often based on disreputable principles”, he adds.

The expectation of the MPF and the organizations is that the recommendation will be accepted and the decision that attributed the licensing to the municipalities, annulled.

“What is expected is the immediate revocation, by the state of Pará, of the norm that allowed the debacle of the municipalization of the licensing of the activity”, says Mauricio Guetta, legal advisor of the ISA.

Ariene Cerqueira, a lawyer and public policy analyst at WWF Brazil, points out that the studies cited in the technical note demonstrate that the damage caused to water bodies, the use of mercury and the impacts of land movement can reach long distances.

“They cause various disturbances to biodiversity and to the lives of populations that are found in areas where mineral exploration activities are not even carried out”, he explains.

In addition to requesting that the state of Pará revoke the decision, the MPF also asks that inspection bodies and security forces not recognize licenses for gold mining granted by municipalities.

“Licenses can be annulled, not only due to vices of competence but also related to non-compliance with federal norms, such as the absence of an adequate impact assessment”, argues Guetta.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}