Prevention and precautionary principles and future environmental damage in the case of Mariana / MG 2015

Abstract

Tailings dams resulting from mining activity have been prominent nationally, but negatively due to disruptions in their structures, which have been causing irreparable damage to the environment, as well as to surrounding communities, rivers and even seas and their ecosystems. Considering the existence of well-delineated legislative apparatuses in the ambit of the Environmental Law, as well as its tools (environmental licensing) and its principle base, it is inconceivable that disasters, such as occurred in the Fundão Dam in Mariana/MG, continue to occur even with the visibility of the environment from the Federal Constitution of 1988. Following this bias, we sought, through the present work, to understand the use of the principles of prevention and precaution, as well as the well-designed environmental licensing, when applied in order to prevent disasters such as occurred in the Fundão tailings dam, in Mariana/MG in 2015 from the perspective of future environmental damage theory. Therefore, bibliographic and documentary research was used through doctrines in the area of Environmental and Civil Law, as well as scientific articles and websites of municipal, state and federal environmental institutions. In the end, it became clear that it is not enough to have well-defined and structured legal tools and sanctions if the aim is only to achieve immediate profit without considering long-term damage. Moreover, it became apparent that if the precautionary and preventive principles were adequately placed in the risk context of such ventures, environmental and human harm could have been minimized and even avoided.