Effectiveness of environmental criminal law in the protection of the Atlantic Forest in the municipality of Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

This work analyzes the effectiveness of the Environmental Crimes Law in the protection of the Atlantic Forest located in the municipality of Ilhéus, Bahia, verifying the compliance with the administrative sanctions imposed on environmental damage. The data used refer to the collection of the infraction notices issued by the IBAMA Regional Office for the municipality of Ilhéus / BA, in the period from 2003 to 2017. He results indicate that, despite the extensive legislative framework protecting the environment, the legislation has proven so far ineffective in protecting the Atlantic Forest, considering that, during the analyzed subperiods, less than 50% of environmental administrative processes had the pecuniary penalty complied with by the offender and many of the older processes remain inert, awaiting further action by the state authorities. This delay in finalizing the administrative and judicial processes, along with the difficulty in applying the penalties, especially fines, cause the inefficiency of the environmental legislation and failures in the protection and conservation of the Atlantic Forest in the municipality of Ilhéus, Bahia.