O “Acordão de Mariana”: solução do quê e proteção de quem?

Abstract

Existing or potential damages in environmental area have often been "solved" through composition by means of conduct adjustment term. Such legal instrument appeared in the same economic and social ambience of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and would have as predicatives the debureaucratization, celerity and efficiency; since it would ensure all that could be achieved if the conflict were sent to the Judiciary. The tragedy in Mariana/MG did not deviate the rule; therefore, this dissertation aims to analyze the instrument signed between the Public Power and the companies Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton regarding the recovery, mitigation and compensation of socioeconomic and socioenvironmental impacts of Fundão dam rupture. To do so, initially the administrative procedure called Environmental Licensing will be accurately analyzed, regarding the environmental legislation requirement for any and every enterprise which uses natural resources or causes damages to environment; posteriorly we analyze its dynamics in the logic of "the game of mitigation" as well as "Oligarchic", in order to finally understand the contextual conjuncture of what occurred in Mariana/MG. At the methodological level, we performed primarily (i) literature review and (ii) documentary research (judicial decisions, interviews, conduct adjustment terms, public civil actions, expert reports and legislation). As a result, we identified similarities between the environmental licensing process from the mineral extractive industries (IEM), especially the companies Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton, and the composition process for conflict resolution by means of the conduct adjustment term, named "Acordão"; especially for the protection of private interests and the inability of public agencies to protect and control collective rights. Keywords: Environmental Licensing, Environmental Disaster; Environmental politics.