Inclusão dos serviços ecossistêmicos em estudos de impacto ambiental: evidência empírica no estado de São Paulo

• Main Authors: Moema Pauline Barão Septanil, Lucila Pinto, Ligia Maria Barrios Campanhão
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal do Paraná 2017-12-01
• Series: Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente
• Subjects: estudo de impacto ambiental; serviços ecossistêmicos; serviços ambientais; são paulo; brasil
• Online Access: https://revistas.ufpr.br/made/article/view/54163

Facing the recent scenario of unsustainable use and degradation of ecosystem services (ESs), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a preventive instrument to introduce ESs in decision-making. This research aimed to assess the ESs input in the EIA process through the analysis of Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) in São Paulo state, Brazil. For that reason, one hundred and ten EISs from 2006 to 2014 were selected and searches for keywords related to ESs were done. A systematic review process examined the EISs containing the keywords based on a 12 criteria review and using an ‘Ecosystem Service Assessment Index’ (IASE). Twenty EISs presented keywords related to ESs, and while the adoption of this concept was unstable between 2006 and 2010, from 2011 the concept input increased, apparently in a voluntary way. Despite this result, those EISs did not adequately address ESs into the EIA process: ESs were poorly identified and few EISs detected potential impacts on the ESs and provided mitigation measures. Despite being more frequent in the EISs, the concept of ESs is not included in the EIA practice in São Paulo state, which suggests the need for explicit policies for this purpose.