Coprodução transdisciplinar entre universidade e gestão pública: contribuições para a reparação por danos ambientais no Brasil

Abstract

Scientific knowledge about the functioning of ecological systems can qualify public environmental management actions to control degradation and improve environmental quality more effectively. Collaborative production processes (or transdisciplinary co-production), with the participation of scientists and users, facilitate the use of science in dealing with complex issues, such as tackling socio-ecological problems. In this work, we promote interactions between scientists and technicians from the federal environmental agency in Brazil (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources – IBAMA) to produce knowledge. An IBAMA technician, a doctoral student at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), facilitated the process, which aimed to formulate a concept of environmental damage and propose a normative instruction aimed at repairing environmental damage at IBAMA. In the 1st chapter, we describe this transdisciplinary co-production experience, highlighting the opportunities and difficulties encountered during the process. Based on our results, we indicate possibilities to actively overcome the difficulties and optimize the opportunities. We discuss the factors that influence the implementation of the propositions built in co-production and the limits of action of the participants in the process. We emphasize the importance not only of the products built, both applied and academic, but of the consequences of the process, such as social learning, which has the potential to foster gradual changes in the culture of their organizations and impact public policies. In the end, we make considerations about the need for organizations to incorporate values and instruments that facilitate transdisciplinary coproduction processes as a way of qualifying environmental management actions and products, while contributing to the development of a more socially relevant science. In the 2nd chapter, we present the logic behind the formulation of the proposed concept of environmental damage. We start from the Brazilian constitution, use legislation, its interpretation, and add perspectives from ecological and social sciences, to make clear the theoretical foundation used in the process. As a result, we define environmental damage as “damage to an ecologically balanced environment”, the latter interpreted as “capable of maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem services over generations due to its resilience”. We emphasize the relative and subjective nature of the characterization of environmental damage and highlight the need to carry out participatory processes for the assessment, characterization, and repair of damage to the environment. In Chapter 3, we present a proposal for a Normative Instruction for IBAMA, co-produced with this institution, based on the premises constructed in the 2nd chapter. It establishes procedures for charging compensation for environmental damage, through administrative means, as a result of facts established in the application of sanctions by IBAMA in inspection actions. This document uses the concept of environmental damage formulated in Chapter 2, and fills a regulatory gap in the institution, identified as one of the difficulties in improving IBAMA's performance in charging reparation actions related to its inspection actions.