National System of Nature Conservation Units (SNUC)
Pará is the first state to regulate a resolution by the National Environmental Council (Conama) that institutes the collection of environmental compensation to support conservation units, as provided for in the National System of Nature Conservation Units (SNUC). On December 21, 2007 Alcoa was the first company in Pará to sign the term of commitment with the Secretary of State for the Environment (SEMA). The Company is setting up the Juruti Mine in the West of the state.
By law the percentage charged can vary from one half of one percent to two percent of the overall value of the undertaking. The term of commitment signed by SEMA and Alcoa, and which is governed by a new methodology called “Grading Environmental Impact”, established a percentage of almost 1.5% of the total cost of R$ 1.7 billion that it is planned to spend on setting up the Juruti Mine. Therefore, Alcoa’s environmental compensation bill will be R$ 25 million, payable in three installments before August 2008.
The percentage was calculated from information contained in the Environmental Impact Study and the Environmental Impact Report (EIA/RIMA), in addition to specific information supplied by Alcoa.
The methodology developed by SEMA takes into consideration three decisive factors in the current social and environmental arrangement of Pará: the influence of the undertaking on institutionalized areas; factors relating to the impact of the project on physical aspects (soil, air and water); and the environmental characteristics of the area where it is proposed to set up the industrial facilities, which have been identified from the critical and productive Ecological and Economic Macro-zoning (ZEE) areas.
Application – The percentage of 1.5% paid by Alcoa will be used for investment in three conservation units located in the region affected by the Juruti Mine: the Grão Pará Ecological Station, which covers the municipalities of Alenquer, Monte Alegre, Óbidos and Oriximiná, on the north channel of the Amazon River; the Maicuru Biological Reserve in the municipalities of Almeirim and Monte Alegre; and the National Park of the Amazon (PARNA), the oldest existing federal unit that was created in 1974, in Itaituba.
Environmental compensation funds may also be used in setting up new conservation units and for management
plans.
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