MARINE POLLUTION AND DISASTER LAW: ANALYSIS OF THE OIL SPILL INCIDENT ON THE NORTHEAST COAST OF BRAZIL FROM THE RISK COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Contextualization: Brazil is a signatory to the main international conventions that aim to protect and regulate the marine space, and there are also several national rules. Despite these national and international regulations, in the case of the oil spill off the Brazilian coast, the country has not presented an adequate response to mitigate the damage to the marine environment, also due to the absence of an adequate communication plan capable of alerting the population.

Objective: The object of study of this article is the oil spill on the northeastern coast of Brazil, which occurred in 2019, from the perspective of risk communication. Its objective is to analyze the existing failures in the communication of environmental disasters, with the proposition of a normative parameter for disclosure in similar cases.

Methodology: The research is bibliographic and documentary, with a qualitative approach, and as for the objectives, descriptive, explanatory and propositional, of theoretical nature.

Results: It is concluded that in the case studied the constitutional and conventional standards for the right of access to environmental information were not followed, which points to the need for the inclusion of communication planning as mandatory content to be required in case of marine pollution, including for vessels circulating under national jurisdiction.