of which two are particularly eye-catching: promoting and improving laws and
regulations on environmental matters, as well as providing environmental data and
information.
Similar to IBAMA, another Institute shares the power of environmental police
within Brazilian national jurisdiction, yet solely with regard to protected areas. The
Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio)
65 is a special
federal autarchy linked to the Ministry for the Environment responsible for effecting
management and conservation actions within the National System of Conservation
Units, as well as supervising and monitoring protected areas designed by the Union.
It also falls upon it to promote and execute programs aimed at researching and
conserving biodiversity, both within terrestrial and marine protected areas.
Both IBAMA and ICMBio consist of enforcement agencies linked to the Ministry
for the Environment (MMA), an organ which displays repeated concern with the
Brazilian coast side, but little attention to the rest of the marine environment. That
conclusion is possible from analysis of the Ministry’s official reports—revised for
the purposes of this work—and the structure of the Ministry’s website. After
exploring the website for hours, should one look for information on “coastal zone
and oceans”, under the macro-topic of “water” in that website, the only available info
relates to “coastal management”—that is as much details on oceans as one will find
on the official website.
66
Regarding coastal management, the Ministry develops a couple of projects on the
conservation of marine biodiversity. Firstly, the Project TerraMar monitors and
manages two MPAs (Costa dos Corais and Abrolhos), totaling 400 ha. That project
aims at enforcing conservation measures in the two above-mentioned biodiversity
sanctuaries and is funded by the German Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) and
the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). Secondly, the Project GEFMar seeks to support the establishment, expansion and implementation of a globally
significant, representative and effective System of Marine and Coastal Protected
Areas in Brazil, apart from identifying tools for their financial continuity, in order to
reduce the loss of coastal biodiversity. This system integrates different categories of
protected areas and other area-based conservation measures under different management strategies. It is a Federal project, created and implemented in partnership
with the private sector and civil society, aimed at increasing the amount of MPAs in
Brazilian waters, as well as designing and implementing at least two financial
65 ICMBio was created by the Act no. 11.516/2007.
66 Information is also available on yet another Program of the MMA, namely the National Program
for the Conservation of the Brazilian Coast Line (PROCOSTA), launched in 2018 by the Decree
76/2018. The Program should ensure the monitoring, management and conservation of the
country’s coastal region in order to minimize damages and preserve the environmental characteristics and services provided by that area. The initiative also integrates coastal management into
actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
264
9 The Environmental Dimension of the “Brazilian Blue...
regulations on environmental matters, as well as providing environmental data and
information.
Similar to IBAMA, another Institute shares the power of environmental police
within Brazilian national jurisdiction, yet solely with regard to protected areas. The
Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio)
65 is a special
federal autarchy linked to the Ministry for the Environment responsible for effecting
management and conservation actions within the National System of Conservation
Units, as well as supervising and monitoring protected areas designed by the Union.
It also falls upon it to promote and execute programs aimed at researching and
conserving biodiversity, both within terrestrial and marine protected areas.
Both IBAMA and ICMBio consist of enforcement agencies linked to the Ministry
for the Environment (MMA), an organ which displays repeated concern with the
Brazilian coast side, but little attention to the rest of the marine environment. That
conclusion is possible from analysis of the Ministry’s official reports—revised for
the purposes of this work—and the structure of the Ministry’s website. After
exploring the website for hours, should one look for information on “coastal zone
and oceans”, under the macro-topic of “water” in that website, the only available info
relates to “coastal management”—that is as much details on oceans as one will find
on the official website.
66
Regarding coastal management, the Ministry develops a couple of projects on the
conservation of marine biodiversity. Firstly, the Project TerraMar monitors and
manages two MPAs (Costa dos Corais and Abrolhos), totaling 400 ha. That project
aims at enforcing conservation measures in the two above-mentioned biodiversity
sanctuaries and is funded by the German Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) and
the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). Secondly, the Project GEFMar seeks to support the establishment, expansion and implementation of a globally
significant, representative and effective System of Marine and Coastal Protected
Areas in Brazil, apart from identifying tools for their financial continuity, in order to
reduce the loss of coastal biodiversity. This system integrates different categories of
protected areas and other area-based conservation measures under different management strategies. It is a Federal project, created and implemented in partnership
with the private sector and civil society, aimed at increasing the amount of MPAs in
Brazilian waters, as well as designing and implementing at least two financial
65 ICMBio was created by the Act no. 11.516/2007.
66 Information is also available on yet another Program of the MMA, namely the National Program
for the Conservation of the Brazilian Coast Line (PROCOSTA), launched in 2018 by the Decree
76/2018. The Program should ensure the monitoring, management and conservation of the
country’s coastal region in order to minimize damages and preserve the environmental characteristics and services provided by that area. The initiative also integrates coastal management into
actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
264
9 The Environmental Dimension of the “Brazilian Blue...