Aline Rose Barbosa Pereira

• Governance
• Environmental and climate change
• Development Politics
• Governance and conflict

• Brazil

First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Conrad Schetter, BICC, Bonn; Second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Antonio Giménez Merino, Faculty of Law, University of Barcelona; Tutor at ZEF: Dr. Wolfram Laube

Master of Laws (2012)

BMZ via DAAD

Iron-ore mining in Minas Gerais: local grievances, national policies and global demands - legal fields under dispute in socio-environmental conflicts

This research addresses environmental law enforcement in a mining-related conflict. While the relationship between mining and development remains disputed, research across disciplines acknowledges the disruptive effects open pit mining imposes on nature and society. Large-scale open pit mining, more often than not, affects local communities’ livelihoods and ways of living very negatively. Potential economic benefits hinge, if at all possible, on strong institutions. In the conflicts that typically arise against this backdrop, different actors appropriate and use existing rules to promote or oppose mining initiatives both outside and within institutional spaces. Social expectations towards existing laws to solve conflicts are by and large frustrated. In this research, I investigate how environmental laws were interpreted and applied within an institutional arena, the environmental licensing process of the Minas-Rio iron ore mining project, conducted by the environmental authority of Minas Gerais, Brazil. For an in-depth qualitative study, I have selected one of the biggest and most recent iron ore mining projects in the state of Minas Gerais. Documental research at the archives of government authorities; semi-structured interviews with key actors from local communities, municipal authorities, environmental authorities, activists, researchers, and lawyers representing the mining sector, among others; as well as participant observation of public sessions underly the proposed analysis. Based on the theoretical debate on legal proceduralization, I focus on participation and information and how they were (dis)regarded along the process. While legal proceduralization has been debated and promoted as a governance strategy since the 1980s, the findings of this research show some of its pitfalls and detrimental effects, contributing to this theoretical debate, especially in the context of a developing country.