STRENGTHENING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FOR FEDERAL LAND INFRASTRUCTURE CONCESSIONS

This policy brief by Climate Policy Initiative/Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (CPI/PUC-Rio) analyzes the socio-environmental components of Technical, Economic and Environmental Feasibility Studies (EVTEA) and Environmental Assessment Studies (EIA) for federal land infrastructure concessions in the Legal Amazon. The analysis reveals significant gaps in the coverage of biotic environments, a lack of coordination between the two types of studies, and inconsistent compliance with sectoral manuals and terms of reference (TRs).

• Environmental studies for land infrastructure prioritize socio-economic and physical environments over the biotic environment (fauna and flora). This emphasis in the EVTEA misses the opportunity to integrate biotic analysis into the project feasibility equation before the environmental licensing stage.
• There is a significant overlap between EVTEA and EIA, with approximately 30% of components analyzed in EIAs also appearing in EVTEAs. The researchers suggest that making the correlation between these two studies mandatory would create efficiency gains and allow certain analyses to be conducted earlier.
• Environmental studies frequently fail to align with international guidelines and sectoral manuals. Specifically, none of the analyzed studies incorporated all ten most relevant social and environmental components identified in international guidelines, and riverine communities were entirely absent from all studies.
• Compliance with sectoral manuals is low: the railroad sector incorporated an average of 47% of components from VALEC's manual, and the highway sector incorporated an average of 54% of components from DNIT's manual.
• There is a lack of compliance between environmental studies and their respective Terms of Reference (TRs). While highway EVTEAs complied with their TRs, railroad EVTEAs and all analyzed EIAs failed to fully comply with their TR provisions.
• The analysis highlights a lack of transparency in the sector; out of 14 analyzed sections of highway and railroad projects, only one project (Ferrogrão) had complete information available for all environmental studies and their TRs.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2021). STRENGTHENING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FOR FEDERAL LAND INFRASTRUCTURE CONCESSIONS. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Componentes-Socioambientais-EN-1.pdf

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. STRENGTHENING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FOR FEDERAL LAND INFRASTRUCTURE CONCESSIONS. 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Componentes-Socioambientais-EN-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=STRENGTHENING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FOR FEDERAL LAND INFRASTRUCTURE CONCESSIONS |date=June 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Componentes-Socioambientais-EN-1.pdf |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/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Componentes-Socioambientais-EN-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }