Strengthening Environmental Studies for Federal Land Infrastructure Concessions

The policy brief analyzes the gap between international guidelines, sectoral manuals, and the actual implementation of environmental studies for land infrastructure in the Legal Amazon. It finds that studies prioritize socio-economic and physical factors over the biotic environment, often fail to comply with their own terms of reference, and lack coordination between the EVTEA and EIA phases. The authors recommend making EVTEAs mandatory before EIAs, incorporating international standards into binding terms of reference, and establishing transparent approval criteria to reduce environmental risks and transaction costs.

• Environmental studies for land infrastructure prioritize socio-economic and physical environments over the biotic environment (fauna and flora). This emphasis in the EVTEA phase misses the opportunity to integrate biotic analysis into the project feasibility equation before environmental licensing begins.
• There is a significant overlap between the EVTEA and EIA, with approximately 30% of components analyzed in EIAs also appearing in EVTEAs. The document argues that mandatory correlation between these two studies would create efficiency gains and allow certain analyses to be conducted earlier.
• Environmental studies in the analyzed projects fail to incorporate all ten of the most relevant socio-environmental components identified in international guidelines. Specifically, riverine communities were not included in any of the studies reviewed.
• Compliance with government sectoral manuals is low; railroad projects incorporated an average of 47% of components from the VALEC manual, while highway projects incorporated an average of 54% from the DNIT manual.
• Environmental studies frequently fail to comply with their own Terms of Reference (TR). While highway EVTEAs complied with their TRs, none of the analyzed EIAs were fully compliant.
• The sector suffers from a lack of transparency regarding environmental documentation. Only one project, Ferrogrão, had complete information available for all environmental studies and their respective terms of reference.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2021). Strengthening Environmental Studies for Federal Land Infrastructure Concessions. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/strengthening-environmental-studies-for-federal-land-infrastructure-concessions/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Strengthening Environmental Studies for Federal Land Infrastructure Concessions. 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/strengthening-environmental-studies-for-federal-land-infrastructure-concessions/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Strengthening Environmental Studies for Federal Land Infrastructure Concessions |date=17 June 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/strengthening-environmental-studies-for-federal-land-infrastructure-concessions/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2021strengthening, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Strengthening Environmental Studies for Federal Land Infrastructure Concessions}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/strengthening-environmental-studies-for-federal-land-infrastructure-concessions/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }