MPF requests revocation of license for megaproject in Boipeba – 03/17/2023 – Environment

MPF requests revocation of license for megaproject in Boipeba – 03/17/2023 – Environment


The MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) in Bahia sent on Tuesday (14) a request for the state government to revoke the installation license of a tourist and real estate megaproject on Boipeba Island, in Cairu (175 km from Salvador).

The agency points out that the region is a federal public area, in the process of being recognized as a reserve for traditional communities.

The license granted by Inema (Institute for the Environment and Water Resources) provides that in the area of ​​1,651 hectares of Atlantic forest, a residential condominium with 67 lots, two inns (one with 25 rooms and the other with 25 houses), road infrastructure, pier and landing strip.

The total area is equivalent to ten Ibirapuera parks, in São Paulo.

The use of two lots for activities of social interest, such as a cultural center, sports equipment and waste treatment plant, was also authorized.

Mangaba Cultivo de Coco, responsible for the development, says that the project was submitted to several public bodies and that the license is linked to compliance with 59 socio-environmental conditions.

The MPF points out that the project occupies almost 20% of Boipeba and states that Inema’s work is an obstacle to the way of life of traditional communities.

Prosecutors also say that the institute was informed of the existence of areas where traditional peoples live. In an August 2022 letter to Inema, the SPU (Superintendence of the Union’s Heritage) of Bahia recommended that, therefore, developments should not be authorized.

Community leader Raimundo Siri says that the project will be “on top of the Cova da Onça community”, “squeezed between the sea, the beach and the development”. “The community can’t develop further, we can’t use the territory to survive anymore”, he says.

Fishing and shellfishing, he says, are two of the main activities in the region, in addition to mangaba extractivism and ecological tourism.

For him, the project is for “select people”. “The tendency is for the community to disappear from the map and people to be replaced by others.”

Among the partners of Mangaba Cultivo de Coco are Arminio Fraga, founding partner of Gávea Investimentos, former president of the Central Bank and former columnist for Sheetand José Roberto Marinho, president of the Roberto Marinho Foundation and vice-president of the board of directors of Grupo Globo.

The managing partner of the project is Marcelo Stallone, also a partner at Gávea Investimentos.

Marinho was approached by the report through the Roberto Marinho Foundation, which did not respond to contacts. Fraga and Stallone preferred to speak in a note from Mangaba.

The company, in the note, states that the Fazenda Ponta dos Castelhanos project foresees construction in less than 2% of the total area of ​​the property, and vegetation suppression in 0.17%, which would guarantee “the natural preservation of the APA of the Ilhas de Tinharé- Boipeba”.

The statement also says that, among the conditions for granting the license, are the training of local labor, maintenance of paths used by the population and free access for extractive activities.

Also in a note, Inema states that the project was licensed “with the most perfect smoothness and transparency”.

“[O processo] can be considered as a positive milestone in the region’s tourist activity, contributing to preservation through controlled and orderly occupation”, says the text.

Rui Rocha, agronomist and director of the NGO Floresta Viva, analyzes that, in comparison with other models of mass tourism in the region, such as the one existing in the village of Morro de São Paulo, the project can “compose a tourism ecosystem in this archipelago with results very positive”.

“The concern for Boipeba is very genuine, very legitimate. It is a sanctuary. But I believe that a well-designed project can help preserve it. What is intended to be built is a very small area”, he says.

The NGO Gambá (Grupo Ambientalista da Bahia) “is very concerned about the state government’s refusal to comply with or even respond to the recommendations of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office”.



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