Begun in 2020, after the signing of a Socioenvironmental Consent Decree in August 2019, the SCD Porto Sul project will promote the integrated environmental and strategic management of the area affected by the Port and Port Services Complex in South Bahia.

The focus area is located between the municipalities of Ilhéus and Itacaré, spanning the Lagoa Encantada e Rio Almada and Itacaré-Serra Grande Environmental Protection Areas. The aim is to ensure the sustainable development, environmental integrity, ecological functioning and ecosystem services-provision in and to the region through a suite of integrated landscape-wide actions designed to prevent avoidable environmental damage and mitigate the unavoidable impacts of the Port Complex’s presence in the region.

The actions include the following seven lines of approach:

1. Territorial Planning – Production of primary data on the use and occupation of land and vegetation;
2. Honing of environmental surveillance, assessment and control — Production of Primary Data – Acquisition and implementation of environmental data-collection platforms and hiring of technical services specializing in the production and handling of primary data so as to inform assessments and environmental control operations;
3. Integrated environmental assessments – hiring of technical services specializing in the integration of environmental surveillance, control and inspection;
4. Strengthening of inspections – the acquisition of assets to structure entities directly involved in inspection (municipal/state environmental secretariats, ICMBio, Environmental Police, Federal Police, Federal Public Prosecutors Office);
5. Consolidation/Structuring of State and Federal Protected Areas (PAs) – drafting and reviewing Management Plans, Public Usage Plans, Demarcation, Signage, promotion, and the improvement of the physical infrastructure at PA bases;
6. Development of offset and supplementary compensation measures for fauna/flora – Bringing Marine Wildlife Emergency and Land-cover Recomposition Centers up to spec.
7. Strengthening of environmental governance – Setting up a Socioenvironmental Observatory.

Project execution is scheduled to take six years and will be financed under the terms of the SCD agreed between the following parties: state and federal public prosecutors, the State of Bahia (through its Environmental Secretariat and Chief of Staff’s office), the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (INEMA), the municipality of Ilhéus and the company Bahia Mineração Inc.

ODS