Law enforcement agencies bid to suspend dredging license in the Port of Paranagua

Law enforcement agencies MPF and MPPR issued three recommendations to the presidency of the Brazilian Natural Resources Institute (Ibama) to backtrack on the renewal of Installation License No. 1144/2016.

The license allows for the deepening dredging of the Port of Paranaguá’s navigation channel, access ways, and mooring berths. In addition, the permit contemplated the “Emergency Rock Removal at the Palangana Region.”

The navigation channel and maneuvering basins of the ports of Paranaguá and Antonina are incorporated into the Paranaguá estuarine complex, which is located north of the coast of the State of Paraná. Consequently, they have an impact on the surrounding region, which includes the municipalities of Antonina, Guarçouba, Guaratuba, Matinhos, Morretes, Paranaguá, and Pontal do Paraná.

According to MPF and MPPR findings, the installation license was oblivious to several traditional communities that dwell directly within the asset’s influence sphere.

Implementing a Fishing Activity Compensation Program is a prerequisite for the installation license, under which the interested party commits to constructing fishing piers (“trapiches” in Portuguese). Unfortunately, in the specific case of Port of Paranagua’s most recent dredging license, only 14 communities were included in the program, an insufficient number. Moreover, there was no free, prior, and informed consultation on other needs.

The public prosecution agencies initiated inspections and found that the effects and damages resulting from the licensing extend to more than 60 traditional or partially traditional communities.

It was discovered, for example, that the Fishing Community of São Miguel was initially considered within the area of direct influence but was later removed for reasons not made clear in the text. The inspection conducted by the public institutions revealed that a portion of the community commutes to areas very close to the navigation channel, access, and berths of the Port of Paranaguá, proving the exclusion to be undue. The same conclusion was reached concerning the fishing community of Vila das Peças.

All communities affected by the effects of Installation License No. 1144/2016 are impoverished and have been suffering from the successive reduction, over the years, of the fish stock in the area affected by port activity.

The prosecutors’ final decision was that the absence of an appropriate study that reveals the extensive social effects of port activities would cause the maintenance of the current environmental licensing to harm the livelihood and way of life of these communities, impairing the survival of several of their members in the long term.

Source: Correio do Litoral

To read the original reporting, please visit: https://www.correiodolitoral.com/59825/noticias/manchete/mpf-e-mp-pedem-suspensao-da-licenca-de-dragagem-no-porto-de-paranagua/

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