Environmental infringements in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro: an analysis of the complaints of the state public ministry

Abstract

The present work had as main objective to analyze the complaints of environmental infractions sent by the State Public Prosecutor (MPE) to the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro in 2018. The secondary objective of the work was to compare the environmental irregularities found in each of the 33 administrative regions (AR) of the municipality with data of social progress and population growth expectation of each RA to try to find correlations that could explain the dynamics of complaints in the Municipality. The quali-quanti survey was classified as an ex post and documentary investigation from a municipal database containing complaints of environmental violations sent by the MPE, and other public information about administrative regions. From this information, it was found that deforestation and irregular distribution represent almost half of the complaints. The results of linear regressions suggest that the higher the expectation of population increase of AR, the more complaints, which can be explained by actions of real estate speculation. It is also found that regions with high indicators of “housing” and “security” lead their residents to a greater propensity to report irregularities. On the other hand, it was found that in the areas where the population has low income and little access to education, the number of complaints is very low or zero. Due to the distortions presented above, the present study proposes a distribution of the 33 administrative regions in 6 groups, based on income levels, number of complaints, environmental vulnerability and social progress indicators of each AR, different from the present distribution of AR in 5 planning areas (PA), territorial division made basically by geographical proximity. The proposed grouping allows a more adequate analysis of environmental infractions by allowing a broader view of the various issues (income, health, safety, education, among others) involved in this phenomenon.