The Monitoring Committee (Comitê de Acompanhamento in portuguese, CA) for the Term of Commitment for Conduct Adjustment (TAC) of Hydro, in Pará, held its 32nd meeting on October 25th, revisiting the discussion on the allocation of more than BRL 40 million in environmental fines paid by the companies under the TAC, as per the sixth clause.

Initially, nearly BRL 34 million were deposited into the State Environmental Fund (Fema), managed by the Pará Secretary of Environment and Sustainability (Semas), one of the signatories of the TAC, which chose to transfer the funds to the Eastern Amazon Fund (FAO). With the earnings, the updated amount now exceeds BRL 40 million.

The justification for transferring the funds from one to another, according to Semas, is due to the fact that the FAO is a private financial mechanism capable of managing and applying the money with greater agility, compared to the processes involved in transferring funds from a public fund to community projects, for example. The transfer has not yet been made, as it awaits a legal instrument to regulate the process.

Background – For over a year, members of the TAC Monitoring Committee have been discussing the final application of these funds, which should be invested in Barcarena and Abaetetuba (PA), in the areas covered by the term. Since the fund transfer was announced by Semas, the CA began seeking more information about the management of the FAO and the conditions to operationalize the money transfer.

In May this year, the Secretary of Environment and Sustainability of the Government of Pará, José Mauro Ó de Almeida, participated in a CA meeting and stated that, although the decision to transfer the funds was exclusively Semas', suggestions from civil society on the conditions for the final transfer of the money would still be considered.

In July, civil society representatives of the CA met with the Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity (Funbio), a non-governmental organization that won the bid to manage the FAO. At the meeting, community representatives clarified doubts about the fund's governance and made a series of suggestions, such as defining an initial percentage for application; schedule of values to be applied, area of coverage for collective projects; and that the fund's managing entity applies a participatory methodology listening to local community representatives.

A new meeting with the presence of the Secretary of Environment was scheduled for September 26th, but as he could not attend, the members present decided to suspend and continue the meeting on October 25th.

Updates – At this latest meeting, the expectation was that Semas would present updated information on the legal instrument that should govern the transfer of over BRL 40 million to the FAO, as per the direction of the CA meeting where the head of Semas was present.

Marcelo Moreno, Semas' Licensing Manager, reported that the group formed by Semas representatives and civil society continues discussing proposals for drafting a resource application plan.

Tattila Brito, State Prosecutor of Pará assigned to Semas' legal department, emphasized that the decision to transfer the funds to the FAO should reduce bureaucracy and speed up the application of fine values in community initiatives. She informed that the legal instrument to regulate the process had not yet been drafted, as Semas was waiting for the change of case ownership from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) to proceed with the document.

"From now on, we will start working on the legal instrument. We will still gather Semas, the State Attorney General's Office, and the MPF to effectively make this schedule. The schedule and legal instrument will be passed on to the MPF, which will evaluate the whole situation, probably indicating the signing of another TAC addendum," explained Tattila Brito from the PGE.

Igor Oliveira, the Federal Prosecutor who recently took over the case, stated he would prioritize the implementation of this TAC theme, highlighting the MPF's role in the transfer process of fine resources to the FAO. "The Federal Public Ministry must ensure the transparency and integrity of this entire process, it's important that it be very transparent, and that's what we have been following; and also ensure that these resources are allocated to the communities, are reverted to benefit the communities that were impacted."

Mário Santos, representative of traditional and quilombola communities on the TAC Monitoring Committee, who also participates in the group formulating proposals for the fine resource application plan, lamented the delay in implementing solutions for the application of the money. "Since the meeting with the Secretary of Environment until now, nothing has moved forward, we have not been presented with anything concrete. Excuse my outburst, but today I would like to propose that we establish a work schedule, for the first, second step. The Funbio representative said that we can participate, as civil society, in the construction of a work plan, that's what encouraged us. So, folks, let's get this moving," claims Mário.

"It's important to ensure social instruments so that we can participate in this process, without feeling excluded from it, because even though the FAO Management Committee has representatives of civil society, we do not know them, and they do not know Barcarena," pointed out Fabiano Azevedo, substitute for the fourth representation of civil society in the CA.

Elidiane Cardim, a resident of Abaetetuba and holder of the sixth representation of civil society, reaffirmed the importance of formulating proposals for a plan to apply fine resources and also the expectation for the work to progress. "What I wish is for this legal instrument to move forward, for the money to be transferred to the FAO, for Funbio to come manage it and sit with our communities and respect our proposals, because we have proposals for an application plan."

Jackeline Sales, from the second representation of civil society, asked for more information on how the FAO's action axes will be aligned with the local reality of Barcarena and Abaetetuba, and also reaffirmed the communities' willingness to contribute to the process. "We have contributed a lot to these processes that are really about us. And from our contributions, a lot has improved. And we communicated this to the CA, in the form of a document: there is money, there are ideas, the communities have projects, but there is no process to manage this."

Next Steps – Addressing the requests of civil society representatives, State Prosecutor Tattila Brito assured that by the end of November, the legal instrument guiding the transfer of over BRL 40 million from Fema to the FAO will be completed. After drafting the document and validation by the Federal Public Ministry, the procedures for transferring the values will follow, and the execution of an application plan will begin, to be consolidated with suggestions from the TAC Monitoring Committee.

Federal Prosecutor Igor Oliveira also reaffirmed the deadline of the end of November. To facilitate dialogue with civil society representatives, the Federal Prosecutor conducted an in-person agenda in Barcarena on the 8th of last month and heard from community representatives who are members of the CA.

Next Meeting – The 33rd meeting of the TAC Monitoring Committee will be held on the upcoming November 28th and will focus on presenting the final report of the safety and stability audit of Hydro Alunorte's solid waste deposits (item 3.1 of the TAC); updates on the processes of selection and hiring for socioeconomic and ethnographic studies (2.1.1 A), epidemiological studies (2.1.1 C), and environmental studies (2.1.1 BDEF); as well as an update on item 2.1.4, which deals with the investment of R$ 8 million in the expansion of the potable water distribution system.

Contacts – In case of questions, the executive secretariat of the Monitoring Committee has a communication channel available via call or message at the number (91) 99349-0098.

Members of the TAC Monitoring Committee present at the 32nd meeting

• Igor de Lima Goettenauer de Oliveira – Federal Public Ministry (MPF) – Principal
• Eduardo Gonçalves – Federal Public Ministry (MPF) – Alternate
• José Edson Maciel – Alunorte Alumina do Norte do Brasil S/A – Principal
• Alessandra Ribeiro – Norsk Hydro Brasil – Alternate
• Marcelo Moreno – State Secretary of Environment and Sustainability (Semas) – Alternate
• Marcos Lobato – Chemical Workers Union of Barcarena (Sindquímicos) – Alternate
• Mário Assunção do Espírito Santo – Civil Society Representative – Representation 1 – Quilombola and Traditional Communities – Principal
• Vera Lúcia Brito Nascimento – Civil Society Representative – Representation 1 – Quilombola and Traditional Communities – Alternate
• Jackeline Sales – Civil Society Representative – Representation 2 – Principal
• Leandro Mendes Azevedo – Civil Society Representative – Representation 3 – Principal
• Fabiano Azevedo – Civil Society Representative – Representation 4 – Alternate
• Rozemiro Brito – Civil Society Representative – Representation 5 – Principal
• Elidiane Cardim – Civil Society Representative – Representation 6 – Principal
• Rosa Maria Dias da Silva – Civil Society Representative – Representation 7 – Principal
• James Pompeu Pereira – Civil Society Representative – Representation 7 – Principal
• Elisomar Barreto – Civil Society Representative – Representation 8 – Principal
• Maria das Graças Figueira Pereira – Civil Society Representative – Representation 9 – Principal
• Hamilton José Moreira Caminha – Civil Society Representative – Representation 9 – Alternate
• Ereny dos Anjos Lima Barbosa – Civil Society Representative – Representation 10 – Alternate

Guests from Semas

• Tattila Brito Pamplona (State Prosecutor of Pará)
• Andréia Mello (Project Manager at Funbio)
• Fabrício Drago Júnior (Advisor to the Semas office)

Executive Secretariat Team from the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB)

• Edane França Acioli – Socio-environmental Analyst
• Paulo Pantoja – Technical Assistant
• Raphael Castro – Communication Advisor
• Vanessa Silva – Technical Assistant

Source: Executive Secretariat of the TAC Monitoring Committee