Oil spill in the coastal zone of Brazil:

An analysis of marine protected areas

Abstract

The advent of management mechanisms for Conservation Units (UCs) and coastal areas, as an integrated way, is fundamental in the processes of forecasting impacts and disasters, and in the creation of mitigation measures. Coastal zones are subject to great environmental vulnerability in terms of climate change, anthropogenic pressures, and chemical accidents at different scales. Thus, the present work aims to analyze the management plans of the Marine UCs affected by the oil spill in the coastal zone of Brazil in 2019, in order to verify and analyze the presence of contingency plans, as well as the identification of possible proposed actions to mitigate that impact. With the research, it could be verified that of the 119 Marine UCs in the affected states, only 42 management plans. Of these, 20 were part of the radius reached by the oil, covering 26 municipalities in 7 states, however, none of them presented actions related to the contingency or mitigation of impacts related to chemical accidents in their management plan. Furthermore, in relation to the updating of the management plans, they were found to be outdated since their publication in the 1990s, as verified in the Units of the state of Bahia. Therefore, it is suggested that when performing the updates, the plans will include specifications aimed at incidents with chemicals, especially oil, in addition to other anthropic actions to which coastal environments are predisposed.