Improving Public Contracting Processes of Socio-Environmental Studies for Brazil's Land Transportation Projects

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) analyzes the public contracting processes for socio-environmental studies—specifically Technical, Economic, and Environmental Feasibility Studies (EVTEA) and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)—for federal land transportation projects in the Brazilian Amazon. The researchers identify significant gaps in transparency, budget allocation, and the timing of socio-environmental analyses within the project life cycle, providing recommendations to improve the robustness of infrastructure projects and their mitigation measures.

• Public contracting processes for environmental studies in Brazil lack transparency, which prevents civil society and academics from monitoring how studies are selected, assessed, and approved.
• Public notices for EVTEA and EIA contracting often lack clear criteria, making it difficult to understand how budgets are allocated across different socio-environmental components.
• Budgetary analysis of EIAs for the Ferrogrão railroad and highway BR-364 shows that the majority of funds are allocated to diagnostic analyses of the physical, socioeconomic, and biotic environments (54% for Ferrogrão and 57.6% for BR-364), while risk and impact assessment and mitigation measures receive only 6% of the budget in both cases.
• There is an opportunity to shift socio-environmental diagnostic analysis from the EIA phase to earlier stages, such as the EVTEA or a proposed new 'pre-viability' phase, to reduce the burden on environmental licensing and improve project quality.
• The analysis of EVTEA notices revealed that deliverables, payment percentages for environmental components, and deadlines were often unspecified, and price caps for PMI (Expression of Interest) contracts were frequently unavailable in public notices, requiring requests via the Information Access Law (LAI).

APA

Chiavari, J., Antonaccio, L., & Barros, A. C. (2021). Improving Public Contracting Processes of Socio-Environmental Studies for Brazil's Land Transportation Projects. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/REL-Improving-public-contracting-processes-of-socioenvironmental-studies-for-Brazils-land-transportation-projects.pdf

Chicago

Chiavari, Joana, Luiza Antonaccio, and Ana Cristina Barros. Improving Public Contracting Processes of Socio-Environmental Studies for Brazil's Land Transportation Projects. Climate Policy Initiative, 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/REL-Improving-public-contracting-processes-of-socioenvironmental-studies-for-Brazils-land-transportation-projects.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chiavari |first1=Joana |last2=Antonaccio |first2=Luiza |last3=Barros |first3=Ana Cristina |title=Improving Public Contracting Processes of Socio-Environmental Studies for Brazil's Land Transportation Projects |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=February 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/REL-Improving-public-contracting-processes-of-socioenvironmental-studies-for-Brazils-land-transportation-projects.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chiavari2021improving, author = {Chiavari, Joana and Antonaccio, Luiza and Barros, Ana Cristina}, title = {{Improving Public Contracting Processes of Socio-Environmental Studies for Brazil's Land Transportation Projects}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/REL-Improving-public-contracting-processes-of-socioenvironmental-studies-for-Brazils-land-transportation-projects.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }