Proximidade e governança metropolitana : cooperação e conflitos nas políticas públicas ambientais da região metropolitana de Porto Alegre (RMPA)

Abstract

The institutionalization of the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre in 1973 was given by the top-down approach rather than the bottom-up approach. The choice for this type of approach has contributed to the institutional distancing typical of policies that are not constructed through social interaction based on the performance of stakeholders. After the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the Constitution of the state of RS, in 1989, transferring the responsibilities of the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre to the state level, it was possible to establish an administrative regionalization in the metropolitan territory for the establishment of public policies through of the bottom-up approach. As a result, governance structures such as the Regional Development Councils, the River Basin Committees, the Intermunicipal Consortia and the Metropolitan Deliberative Council emerged. These structures have emerged to solve market failures, through public policies. Among the market failures, environmental problems appear. Therefore, environmental public policies are carried out through environmental governance exercised by the State Environmental Council, the Water Resources Council and the State Sanitation Council. This requires integration and coordination between metropolitan governance and environmental governance structures. The general objective of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of stakeholders and governance structures, environmental problems in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, conflict relations and cooperation efforts in the construction of integrated environmental public policies in metropolitan territory , noting the proximity effects on stakeholders and the multilevel governance structures of Type II. For that, the qualitative method was used, based on semistructured field research. Therefore, it was not verified the existence of coordination that allowed the integration between the governance structures and public environmental policies, even if there is an understanding of the need for integration by the stakeholders, observing in this way the lack of organized proximity in the RMPA, to solve environmental problems.