Environmental licensing for enterprises in the municipality of Cajazeiras, Paraíba, Brazil

Abstract

The current society's dependence on new manufactures, energy and other consumer goods has the consequence of increasing industrial activities, and when not managed correctly cause impacts to the environment. As a way to mitigate or prevent these impacts, National Environmental Council Resolution 237/97 deals with environmental licensing. However, the work of environmental agencies to put the resolution into practice is still fragile. The purpose of this study was to verify the performance of the competent state agency regarding the issuance of licenses and infraction notices for enterprises located in the municipality of Cajazeiras, Paraíba. In order to do so, a data survey was carried out in the Platform of the Superintendency of Environmental Management to verify emissions of environmental licenses and assessments in the period from 2004 to 2017, seeking to synthesize the available data and identify the main licensed ventures, as well as the types of projects that are the most taxed. By analyzing the data, the tax assessments issued resulted in a total of 90, a number considered relatively low for the 14-year period, and gas resale, gas stations and bakeries were the most taxed. Regarding the environmental licenses issued to Cajazeiras, they were accounted for in platform 625, observing a relatively low number of Preliminary license issued in relation to the others. In general, the data indicate the need to adopt more effective measures by the state environmental agency, in order to contribute to the environmental regularization of activities or enterprises.