Desafios e oportunidades de mensurar políticas públicas ambientais descentralizadas na Amazônia: o caso do Pará (Paper 393)

Entre os estados da Amazônia Brasileira, o Pará tem avançado na descentralização da gestão ambiental a favor dos municípios. O sucesso de toda política pública, no entanto, baseia-se no seu acompanhamento e avaliação do atingimento de suas metas. O presente estudo objetivou discutir os desafios e oportunidades para a implantação de mecanismos de monitoramento da gestão ambiental municipal no Pará com base em documentos e bibliografia associada. Embora políticas públicas do Estado tenham incluído alguns critérios de desempenho, estes ainda são eminentemente políticos e limitados no tempo. Adicionalmente, não existe por parte do Estado e dos municípios mecanismos de monitoramento e avaliação da gestão uniformes e objetivos. Desta forma, é possível concluir que a gestão ambiental municipal no Estado carece de ferramentas que possam retroalimentar o sistema, contribuindo na correção de rumos no nível local e na avaliação do desempenho municipal no nível estadual. Diante disso, o desenvolvimento de indicadores de desempenho municipal torna-se urgente para aumentar a transparência, o acompanhamento e o aperfeiçoamento da política de descentralização ambiental.Palavras-chave: Amazônia. Indicadores. Gestão Ambiental Municipal. Pará. Brasil

The impact of decentralization policies: the environmental performance applied to municipalities of the Amazon

The historical environmental problems in the Amazon urge greater governance and transparency at the municipal level. The decentralizing of municipal environmental management (MEM) is an ongoing process in the Brazilian Amazonbut a monitoring mechanism is missing. We used an index (iMEM) derived by factorial analysis to rank the environmental management performance of 143 municipalities in Pará state at the beginning of the decentralizing process (2009) and six years after that (2015). Multiple regression analysis indicated that iMEM was positively affected by factors such as population, communication and protected areas in the municipalities and negatively affected by rural credit, GDP and property registration program. Decentralizing measures seem to be more politically than environmentally effective since only 21.7% of 143 municipalities were classified as having good environmental management in 2015. Pará’s poorly performing municipalities in both periods illustrate regions where unsustainable and misguided national policies were fostered in the 70s. The monitoring of the decentralization progress and synergic policies is crucial for the effectiveness of the policy in the Amazon. 

Municipal environmental management and regional conservation in eastern Amazon: perceived performance by public agents in the Pará state, Brazil

Public agents play a key role in municipal environmental management (MEM) under decentralised regimes. This study aimed to evaluate the MEM through the combined perception of municipal agents and the municipal performance previously calculated by secondary data in Pará, Brazil. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was applied to environmental agents. The respondents (n = 75) from 53 municipalities were divided into poorly performing and well-performing municipalities. The perception of agents from poorly performing municipalities was more optimistic than shown by empirical data. Agents from well-performing municipalities prioritised “economic issues” as significant threats to management over the “institutional capacity” chosen by the other group, indicating a broader view of the reality. As the perception over land-use practices was vital to differentiate the agents from different groups, we concluded for the use of mixed monitoring methods and feedback information for agents for a better MEM, focusing on five variables (Rural environmental register – CAR, in Portuguese acronym; degraded area; deforested area; rural credit; and abandoned pasture) that differentiated the municipalities.Public agents play a key role in municipal environmental management (MEM) under decentralised regimes. This study aimed to evaluate the MEM through the combined perception of municipal agents and the municipal performance previously calculated by secondary data in Pará, Brazil. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was applied to environmental agents. The respondents (n = 75) from 53 municipalities were divided into poorly performing and well-performing municipalities. The perception of agents from poorly performing municipalities was more optimistic than shown by empirical data. Agents from well-performing municipalities prioritised “economic issues” as significant threats to management over the “institutional capacity” chosen by the other group, indicating a broader view of the reality. As the perception over land-use practices was vital to differentiate the agents from different groups, we concluded for the use of mixed monitoring methods and feedback information for agents for a better MEM, focusing on five variables (Rural environmental register – CAR, in Portuguese acronym; degraded area; deforested area; rural credit; and abandoned pasture) that differentiated the municipalities.Public agents play a key role in municipal environmental management (MEM) under decentralised regimes. This study aimed to evaluate the MEM through the combined perception of municipal agents and the municipal performance previously calculated by secondary data in Pará, Brazil. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was applied to environmental agents. The respondents (n = 75) from 53 municipalities were divided into poorly performing and well-performing municipalities. The perception of agents from poorly performing municipalities was more optimistic than shown by empirical data. Agents from well-performing municipalities prioritised “economic issues” as significant threats to management over the “institutional capacity” chosen by the other group, indicating a broader view of the reality. As the perception over land-use practices was vital to differentiate the agents from different groups, we concluded for the use of mixed monitoring methods and feedback information for agents for a better MEM, focusing on five variables (Rural environmental register – CAR, in Portuguese acronym; degraded area; deforested area; rural credit; and abandoned pasture) that differentiated the municipalities.Public agents play a key role in municipal environmental management (MEM) under decentralised regimes. This study aimed to evaluate the MEM through the combined perception of municipal agents and the municipal performance previously calculated by secondary data in Pará, Brazil. A questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was applied to environmental agents. The respondents (n = 75) from 53 municipalities were divided into poorly performing and well-performing municipalities. The perception of agents from poorly performing municipalities was more optimistic than shown by empirical data. Agents from well-performing municipalities prioritised “economic issues” as significant threats to management over the “institutional capacity” chosen by the other group, indicating a broader view of the reality. As the perception over land-use practices was vital to differentiate the agents from different groups, we concluded for the use of mixed monitoring methods and feedback information for agents for a better MEM, focusing on five variables (Rural environmental register – CAR, in Portuguese acronym; degraded area; deforested area; rural credit; and abandoned pasture) that differentiated the municipalities

A Descentralização e a gestão ambiental municipal no Estado do Pará, Brasil

The state of Pará has made a major effort to decentralize its environmental management, although the lack of mechanisms to monitor and evaluate this process undermines the transparency, monitoring and improvement of the decentralization policy. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze municipal environmental management in the state of Pará from the analysis of decentralization policies and municipal performance in environmental management. The history of the policies was carried out through documentary analysis and the legal framework. The performance was evaluated based on the development of a municipal environmental management performance index (iGAM) and the perception of local public agents on the environmental management of their municipality. The methodology was applied to 143 municipalities in Pará and the performance of the municipal environmental management was evaluated for the year 2009 and 2015. The perception of the agents on the management was evaluated through a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale applied to two groups of environmental technicians belonging to municipalities with “good” and “poor” performance in management. The results showed that the decentralization of environmental management had its greatest evolution since the year 2009, motivated by public policies and strong pressures to reduce deforestation, however, they lack mechanisms to monitor the quality of environmental management. The iGAM, characterized by land use change variables, which explained more than 70% of the total variance, categorized the municipalities into four performance classes (good, fair, bad and very bad), which were shown in maps. Between 2009 and 2015, there was some improvement in the performance of municipalities. However, the decentralization measures seem to be more political than environmentally effective, since only 21.7% of the 143 municipalities were classified as having good environmental management in 2015. Municipalities in eastern Pará had the poorest management performance in both periods, illustrating regions where unsustainable and misguided national policies have been fostered since the 1970s. In general, iGAM was positively affected by factors such as population, communication and protected areas in municipalities and negatively affected by rural credit, GDPm and rural environmental cadastre. Public agents, with more optimistic perceptions than reality, tended to qualify management differently than expected from empirical data, suggesting the need for mixed monitoring. The variables associated with changes in land use were also key to differentiate the perception of agents from different groups. A cost-effective monitoring of agents’ perceptions by public environmental agencies could focus on the variables that actually differentiate them in terms of perception: degraded area, secondary vegetation, abandoned pasture, deforested area; pasture area; rural credit and rural environmental cadastre. There is still a lot of room for improving the effectiveness of municipal environmental management in Pará. However, it is important to note that many policies with a profound impact at the municipal level are elaborated at higher hierarchical levels and, therefore, responsibility must be shared. The monitoring of environmental management in a synergistic way is as important as it is indispensable to improve the performance of municipalities by enabling the different levels of state public administration to evaluate, plan, monitor, implement and guarantee development in order to preserve environmental quality in the Amazon.CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorO estado do Pará tem realizado um grande esforço na descentralização de sua gestão ambiental, embora a ausência de mecanismos de monitoramento e avaliação deste processo prejudique a transparência, o acompanhamento e o aperfeiçoamento da política de descentralização. Diante disso, este estudo objetivou analisar a gestão ambiental municipal no estado do Pará a partir da análise das políticas de descentralização e do desempenho municipal na gestão ambiental. O histórico das políticas foi realizado por meio da análise documental e do arcabouço legal. O desempenho foi avaliado a partir do desenvolvimento de um índice de desempenho da gestão ambiental municipal (iGAM) e da percepção de técnicos locais sobre a gestão ambiental de seu município. A metodologia foi aplicada a 143 municípios paraenses e o desempenho da gestão ambiental dos municípios foi avaliado para o ano de 2009 e 2015. A percepção dos atores chaves sobre a gestão foi avaliada por meio de um questionário com escala de Likert de 5 pontos aplicado a dois grupos de técnicos de meio ambiente pertencentes a municípios com desempenhos “bom” e “ruim” na gestão. Os resultados mostraram que a descentralização da gestão ambiental teve sua maior evolução a partir do ano de 2009, motivado pelas políticas públicas e pelas fortes pressões para reduzir o desmatamento, no entanto, são desprovidas de mecanismos de monitoramento da qualidade da gestão ambiental. O iGAM, caracterizado por variáveis de mudanças do uso da terra, que explicaram mais de 70% da variância total, categorizou os municípios em quatro classes de desempenho (bom, regular, ruim e muito ruim), os quais foram mostrados em mapas. Entre 2009 e 2015, houve alguma melhora no desempenho dos municípios. No entanto, as medidas descentralizadoras parecem ser mais políticas do que ambientalmente eficazes, uma vez que apenas 21,7% dos 143 municípios foram classificados como tendo boa gestão ambiental em 2015. Municípios do leste do Pará tiveram pior desempenho na gestão em ambos os períodos, ilustrando regiões onde políticas nacionais insustentáveis e equivocadas foram fomentadas desde a década de 70. De forma geral, o iGAM foi positivamente afetado por fatores como população, comunicação e áreas protegidas nos municípios e negativamente afetado pelo crédito rural, PIBm e cadastro ambiental rural. Os técnicos, com percepções mais otimistas que a realidade, tenderam a qualificar a gestão diferentemente do esperado pelos dados empíricos, o que sugere a necessidade de um monitoramento misto. As variáveis associadas a mudanças no uso da terra também foram chaves para diferenciar a percepção de técnicos de grupos diferentes. Um monitoramento custo-efetivo da percepção dos técnicos por agências ambientais públicas poderia se deter nas variáveis que realmente os diferenciam quanto a percepção: CAR, área degradada, área desmatada, credito rural e pastagem abandonada. Ainda há muito espaço para melhoria da eficácia da gestão ambiental municipal no Pará. Entretanto, é importante salientar que muitas políticas com profundo impacto em nível municipal são elaboradas em níveis hierárquicos superiores e, portanto, a responsabilidade deve ser compartilhada. O monitoramento da gestão ambiental de forma sinergética é tão importante quanto indispensável para melhorar o desempenho dos municípios por possibilitar aos diferentes níveis da administração pública estadual avaliar, planejar, acompanhar, implementar e garantir o desenvolvimento de forma a preservar a qualidade ambiental na Amazônia.SEMA/PA - Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambient

Análise dos impactos das diferentes formas de ocupação da superfície sobre as condições meteorológicas na região de Santarém, Pará

This dissertation aimed to get information concerning the use and occupation of soil in the region of Santarém, in different years in the last decades, to show the effects caused by changes of surface properties on the atmospheric conditions simulated by weather and climate numerical models. The land surfaces are characterized by causing substantial effects on the atmosphere and thus influencing the quality of weather and climate forecasts. On the other hand, deforestation contributes to climate change by eliminating large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These activities also cause effects on public health, agriculture, forest resources, wildlife resources, and water resources. In addition, replacement of natural surface by pasture or agriculture modifies the thermal and radioactive properties of the surface, generating changes in local, regional and global atmospheric conditions. In this paper representative periods of possible climate change in the region were analyzed, identified by treatment and statistical analysis of climatologic data from surface weather stations, as well as time and quantitative evolution of deforestation in the study region with data from Project PRODES (Monitoring of Brazilian Amazon Rainforest by Satellite). The evaluation of the atmospheric effects on changes in land use and occupation was based on IBGE vegetation map, and the inclusion of class "deforestation" analyzed in different periods (1997 and 2009) worked on the software Arc. Gis. 9.2. Data files of surface types compatible with the reading of the BRAMS model were created. The BRAMS model was used to simulate the different effects of land use thematic maps in the local atmosphere. The results indicate a trend of increase in average rainfall and frequency of days with precipitation, decrease in average temperature of maximum and increase in average temperature of minimum over years in the region of Santarém. The study area by the year 1997 registered 19.44% deforestation and by the year 2009 it rose to 25.54%. The simulations with the generated files of land use and occupation in 1997 and 2009 showed little variation for different thematic maps in the variables (temperature, humidity and flows of sensible and latent heat) when considering the average values of the total area simulated. However, when small areas located only on the regions suffering the largest changes are taken into account, there are major influences as deforestation increases.O objetivo desta dissertação foi obter informações referentes ao uso e ocupação do solo na região de Santarém, em diferentes anos das últimas décadas, para melhor representar os efeitos causados pelas modificações das propriedades da superfície sobre as condições atmosféricas simuladas por modelos numéricos de tempo e clima. As superfícies continentais caracterizam-se por causar efeitos substanciais sobre a atmosfera e, consequentemente, influir na qualidade das previsões de tempo e de clima. Por outro lado, o desmatamento contribui com as mudanças climáticas, por eliminar grandes quantidades de gases de efeito estufa para a atmosfera. Estas atividades também causam efeitos na saúde publica, na agricultura, nos recursos florestais, nos recursos faunísticos e nos recursos hídricos. Além disso, a substituição da superfície natural por pastagem ou agricultura altera as propriedades térmicas e radiativas da superfície, gerando modificações nas condições atmosféricas locais, regionais e globais. Neste trabalho foram analisados períodos representativos de possíveis mudanças climáticas na região, identificados a partir do tratamento e analise estatística de dados climatológicos de estações meteorológicas de superfície, bem como a evolução temporal e quantitativa do desmatamento na região de estudo com os dados do Projeto PRODES Monitoramento da Floresta Amazônica Brasileira por Satélite). Para avaliar os efeitos atmosféricos das mudanças no uso e ocupação do solo utilizou-se como base o mapa de vegetação do IBGE, e a inclusão da classe “desmatamento” ao mesmo em diferentes períodos analisados (anos de 1997e 2009) trabalhadas no software Arc. Gis. 9.2. Foram criados arquivos de dados de tipos de superfície compatíveis com a leitura do modelo BRAMS, que foi então utilizado para simular os diferentes efeitos desses mapas temáticos de uso e ocupação do solo na atmosfera local. Os resultados indicam uma tendência de aumento da precipitação média anual e da frequência média de dias com precipitação, diminuição da temperatura média das máximas e aumento da temperatura média das mínimas ao longo dos anos na região de Santarém. A área de estudo, até o ano de 1997, registrou um desmatamento de 19,44% e até o ano de 2009 passou para 25,54%. As simulações com os arquivos gerados de uso e ocupação do solo para 1997 e 2009 apresentaram poucas variações para os diferentes mapas temáticos em suas variáveis (temperatura, umidade e fluxos de calor sensível e latente), quando considerado os valores médios da área total simulada. Porém, quando se considera pequenas áreas localizadas somente sobre as regiões que sofreram maiores modificações, observam-se maiores influências com o aumento do desmatamento