A efetivação da legislação ambiental: estudo a partir do espaço rural de Santa Maria/RS

Abstract

The reality in the rural area has been showing that a good share of the agricultural practices developed does not assure the accomplishment of the environmental legislation and neither the sustainability of the rural properties. Taking that in to account, the present dissertation has as general purpose to identify some factors involving the accomplishment of the environmental legislation in rural properties on the basis of the rural reality of the municipal district of Santa Maria, RS. Amongst the specific objectives are: to establish an approach with the rural producers’ knowledge regarding the environmental services within rural properties and also about the environmental legislation; to determine by the departments belonging to the National Environmental System (SISNAMA) from Santa Maria which are the main unfulfilled legal aspects, as well as the main factors contributing for this situation, and the operational difficulties faced by the employees, besides providing subsidies that may be helpful for the accomplishment of the environmental legislation. We have tried to understand the accomplishment of the environmental legislation in rural properties as a phenomena that comes out as a reflex of an integrated set of processes, which involves the rural area’s productive practices, the elaboration of the public politics, the participation or not of the concerning sectors, and the actuation of the environmental departments in charge of supervising, amongst other aspects. Thus, the research was developed from a dialectical approach, emphasizing the following procedures: bibliographic review regarding the studied thematic; the making of interviews with the rural producers of the whole districts from Santa Maria and also with the representative entities of the rural sector and the employees of the departments belonging to the SISNAMA located in the city; space-social characterization of Santa Maria’s rural area by secondary sources (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica and municipal general offices), and also; we took part in the meetings of the Municipal Council of Environment’s Defense from Santa Maria and of the Committee of Management of the Vacacai and Vacacai- Mirin Rivers’ Hydrographic Basin aiming at to identify the main environmental matters currently discussed in the district and the laws elaboration process. Regarding the environmental maintenance and the accomplishment of the environmental legislation, no single rationality has been identified in relation to the rural producer, mainly due to the local space-social diversity. Starting from the interviews developed with the various segments, changes in the environmental legislation may be observed, being above all respected the local particularities. Besides, on the basis of the bibliographic study developed, a series of alternatives in face of the existent conflicts has been identified, with the emphasis on the establishment of economical instruments in a local level. Most of the rural producers have declared to posses a reasonable knowledge on the environmental laws, though such knowledge was shown to involve punctual aspects. Similarly, most of them are not aware about the possibility of participating in the laws elaboration process. On the grounds of the presented results, we long for subsidizing the process involving the review of the environmental public politics that have influence on the rural area, with the purpose of searching for the maintainable rural development in face of the several local realities.