ICMBio Updates Rules on Intervention in Environmental Licensing

On April 3, 2025, Brazil’s Federal Environmental Agency for the protection of Conservation Units (“ICMBio”) published Normative Instruction No. 16/2025, modifying the procedures regulating its role as an intervening agency in administrative environmental licensing proceedings, revoking its predecessor, Normative Instruction No. 10/2020. The new regulation will come into force on May 2.

This regulation innovates very little on top of the existing procedure for issuing the Authorization for Environmental Licensing (“ALA”), the administrative act by which ICMBio authorizes the relevant environmental agency to proceed with the licensing proceeding of a given activity that affects federal Conservation Units (“UC”) or its respective buffer zone. Nevertheless, some alterations are noteworthy.

The new rule establishes that the Conservation Unit's Advisory Council should be heard as a part of the process for issuing the ALA. According to the National System of Conservation Units Law, the Advisory Council consists of the management body, representatives of relevant public bodies, civil society organizations, traditional populations living in the Conservation Unit, among others. In the event of a change to the project by the developer, the Council must express itself once again.

In addition, for cases not subjected to Environmental Impact Assessment (an environmental assessment required for projects which will significantly impact the environment), in which case developers must only inform ICMBio about the project (i.e., obtaining approval is not necessary). The new rule allows ICMBio the option of submitting technical contributions to the environmental licensing proceeding, with the exception that such contributions must be directly related to the impacts identified in the UC in question.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the new rule allows the project developer to request a review of ICMBio's decision to issue the ALA. Previously, the request for a review of the decision was handled by the licensing environmental agency.

The Environmental, Climate Change and ESG Practice of Tauil & Chequer Advogados in association with Mayer Brown is available for further clarification on the subject.