Desenvolvimento de modelo para avaliação de desempenho de política pública de meio ambiente. Estudo de caso: Estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The goal of this study was to develop a method that could contribute to environmental public policy performance assessment by developing countries, with the intention of providing them with tools that are adequate for their environmental, social and economic reality. The referential framework for this method took into account the main environmental aspects and impacts observed in these countries, identifying potentialindicators that had been previously evaluated according to the DrivingForce/State/Response Method and successfully used in several national and international studies. The selected indicators were distributed among six themes - Air, Water, Soil, Biodiversity, Institutional and Socio-Economic and submitted to a choice and priority process utilizing Delphi methodology, taking opinions from 150 national environmentalexperts and decision makers. This methodology, in addition to reducing inherent subjectivity, allows for the definition and characterization of the weight of the indicators in relation to the priorities they confer and, thus, the establishment of an environmental index. The final Index was composed of the relative values of the aggregated indicators. Themethod was tested in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais for the period from 1977 until 2003. The results show the method was easily applied, satisfactory and coherent, and that it permitted the identification of critical points that are consequence of the enforcement of environmental policy. It can be observed that themes such as water and biodiversity represent more than 50% on the final Index, confirming the strategical importance of these themes in the implementation of environmental public policy in developing countries, which posses the largest water and biodiversity reserves on Planet. On the other hand, the priority of physical and biotic systems is shown by the index weight of air, water, soil and biodiversity as more than 80% of the final Index. The model also prioritizes the state(environment quality) indicators that put in evidence effectiveness evaluation more than efficacy or efficiency. To develop a method of public policy assessment means searching for a way to have a good judgment for a set of governmental actions, having the objectives of giving information to the stakeholders and to the decision makers. However, it isimportant to remember that any assessment method is only a tool that indicates the pathways towards procedures that must be established with the support and the inclusion of democratic mechanisms.