Centrorochas, Ibama and CNI discuss prospects for publication of normative instruction to repair environmental damage

On July 20, the legal advisor for environmental issues and mining law of Centrorochas, Victor Athayde, participated in a meeting in Brasilia with representatives of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI).  On the agenda, negotiations regarding the publication of the consolidated text of the Normative Instruction (NI) that was submitted to public consultation in April this year, when Ibama’s internal procedure for repairing environmental damage was defined. 

Representing the national stone industry, the lawyer stressed that the organization fears that there will be a presumption of responsibility for environmental damages and possible difficulties faced by the regulatory body.  “In the event of a succession of mining rights, where there is no possibility of locating all the holders of a mining right procedure, this procedure may prevent an area from being disembargoed; thus the current holder would take on responsibilities for repairing any damage, including when implementing a Degraded Area Recovery Plan that is submitted to environmental licensing and usually established by the states,” said Athayde. He also explained that, in this case, there would be an overlap in relation to the negotiations for the repair of an area that may have been degraded previously.

The representatives of Ibama, however, clarified that the NI does not intend to address this issue and that there will be a specific NI for this type of situation.  Centrorochas will continue to attend to the issue, monitoring how the agency will interpret the enforcement of the damage repair rule since there is still no rule for degraded areas.

The meeting was attended by: representing Ibama: the head of the Division of Repair Projects due to Environmental Damage and Conversion of Fines of the Directorate of Sustainable Use of Biodiversity and Forests, Antônio Celso, and the coordinator of Environmental Repair of the Directorate of Sustainable Use of Biodiversity and Forests, Raquel Caroline; representing CNI: Havilá da Nobrega and Bárbara Salatiel Borges.