Based on the environmental legislation, specially on Federal Constitution and also on Acts 6.938/81 and 9.433/97 this paper discusses about environmental management in Brazil, particularly environmental licensing, and potentially polluter activities control. An environmental management model focused on environmental quality is proposed. For more than 20 years environmental licensing has been constantly improved without any change in its basis: the consideration of effluents quality standards and maintenance of a quality minimum standard for receiving waters. The model proposed not only keeps focus on environmental quality but also aims to integrate procedures to obtain environmental licensing and water use rights, increasing the possibilities of applying economic instruments to environmental management. This article also describes the experimental use of this proposed model during the installation of a factory. It's taken as an example a case in Ilha Grande bay hydrographic region, in state of Rio de Janeiro. The lack of accurate environmental conditions data in that area was the main difficulty for applying the proposed model.
environmental licensing; environmental management; environmental quality
