A participação social na câmara de atividades minerárias do Conselho Estadual de Política Ambiental – COPAM: uma análise do papel da sociedade civil organizada a partir do princípio democrático no estado socioambiental de direito

Abstract

The confluence of the constitutional protection of the environment with the formatting of a Democratic State of Law has led to a Socio-environmental State of Law, represented by a model that encompasses the democratic, social and ecological dimensions of constitutionalism. The ecologically balanced environment requires collaboration between the Public Power and the community for its concrete affirmation, and the State of Minas Gerais has instituted the State Council of Environmental Policy - COPAM. The specialized technical chambers of COPAM, by express legal diction, must bear equal representation between the Public Power and civil society, ensuring the participation of the productive, technical-scientific and environmental defense sectors. It would be expected that in the Chamber of Mining Activities - CMI, a fractioned body of greatest relevance for the economic activity of the State of Minas Gerais, since it is responsible for discussing and proposing mining-related environmental policies, as well as analyzing, debating and deciding the licensing processes of large mining enterprises, as in any collegiate, plural and balancing of forces environment, there would be a variation of positions, sometimes serving economic interests, sometimes opting for the preservationist bias. Nevertheless, one has the impression that the projected balance did not materialize in practice, because an initial scrutiny of its deliberations led to the idea that decisions are defined according to the wishes of the economic players, with little room for arguments of other orders. Given this panorama, the present paper intended to answer whether, based on the understanding of the democratic principle in the Socio-environmental State of Law, there is a real participation of organized civil society in the CMI, with a real possibility for its representatives to influence the elaboration of public policies and the decision-making processes. Thus, after the bibliographical review that established the premises that lead this research - ecologically balanced environment as a third dimension fundamental right, Socio-environmental State of Law, democratic principle and citizen participation in environmental matters, and fundamental right of effective social participation in environmental decision making processes - the legislation of the State of Minas Gerais that governs COPAM was presented and its evaluation was performed under the constitutional and federal legal framework, the compositions of the CMI from April 2019 to December 2022 was examined, the attributions of the specialized technical chamber were verified, all the decisions made during this period were tabulated and analyzed, and, finally, the ways of conducting two important environmental licensing processes were compared: one referring to the expansion of the Córrego do Feijão Mine of Vale S. A., which occurred a little less than two months before the collapse of the dams in Brumadinho, and the other about authorizing Taquaril Mineração S.A. to install a mining project in Serra do Curral. The answer to the research problem was negative, that is, the representatives of organized civil society are not in a position to interfere in the decision-making processes in the CMI, with the collegiate functioning as a confirmer for the positions of the State Executive, which, in the absolute majority of situations, aligns itself with the economic interests of the productive sector.