A participatory process construction and evaluation aiming at a technical part preparation for an Environmental Adjustment Program (EAP) in the state of São Paulo

Abstract

The development of a tool for mapping priority areas for Legal Reserve (LR) compensation of rural proprieties is a demand from public managers (specially from the Secretaria do Meio Ambiente and Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento do Estado de São Paulo, both responsible for the approval of the Projects of Restoration of Degraded Areas - PRADAs) for the implementation of the New Forest Code (Federal Law 12.651/2012, Law 15.684/2015, Decree 61.792/2016, Joint Resolution SMA/SAA-1/2016, Normative Instruction nº 5/2016) in the State of São Paulo. The development and disclosure of a map with priority areas for LR compensation presents not only technical challenges but, also, political issues, since there are multiple stakeholders (e.g. farmers, public managers, researchers, third sector members, government) with distinct, and frequently, opposing views, about how to stablish criteria for LR compensation, as well there still doubts and mismatching interpretations about local and national legislation on this topic. Public manager must rely on a flexible tool that allows a transparent dialog with all the involved stakeholders. Thus, discussions may take place over an accurate factual basis, without information privileges or gaps. The processing agility from the suggested tool and the possibility of analyzing different scenarios of LR compensation, are essential factors to support the dialog of the public managers. (AU)