Environmental Licensing as an Instrument for the Environmental Management of Brazilian Public Ports

Port environmental management initiatives have not yet been properly implemented in Brazilian public ports, and when they exist, they are still very fragmented and are not based on techniques of planning or environmental management, but instead are only intended to answer the minimum requirements of the legal licensing process for construction and port operation. The purpose of this article was to analyze if environmental licensing can be considered an environmental management tool for Brazilian public ports. For this, exploratory research with a qualitative focus was carried out in the 37 Brazilian public ports, regarding the current situation of environmental licensing. It was concluded that the environmental licensing of public ports in Brazil is still a long process and associated with a lot of unpredictability, where some ports, after many years, do not even have the proper operating licenses and the environmental management of most public ports is still insufficient or even non-existent. In this context, environmental licensing can be considered a management tool; however, it cannot be replaced by the planning and constant improvement of environmental compliance—both those provided for by law and other environmental regulatory mechanisms—at a national and international level.