With the administrative reform sanctioned by Governor Raquel Lyra (PSDB), the Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainability was replaced by the Secretariat for the Environment, Sustainability and Fernando de Noronha. With the decision, the archipelago will be released from the Secretariat for Administration and Development (SAD). The objective, according to the decree, is “to formulate, qualify and execute the sustainable management and the instruments of the environmental policy of the state district of Fernando de Noronha”. Watch:
(embed)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhw9-GfcLzM(/embed)
Despite having already been approved by the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco (ALEPE), there is still disagreement about whether or not the change is the best one for Noronha. This is what state deputy João Paulo (PT) points out, who expected a change in the island’s management, which only changed its secretariat.
“If we had the problems that she criticized in Noronha’s management; so, in my view, the reform would have to point elsewhere and Fernando Noronha would have to be managed by the governor’s office. Because the importance of Noronha, which has a native population, has workers who arrive there and has, according to ICMBio data, 129 thousand people who visited Noronha in 2022. So, for you to serve a population of 129 thousand people during the year , a structure is needed, prepared people are needed”, believes the parliamentarian.
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Fernando de Noronha is a district that belongs to the Union, but was transferred to the state of Pernambuco for its management. Therefore, Noronha has an administration that is appointed by the state government, making the space that Noronha occupies in the state even more important.
Lawyer Débora Costa, specialist in public and environmental law, who works in cases involving the archipelago, assesses that the impact will depend on the way management is conducted. “Noronha was under the management of SAD, so I understand that it is not a hindrance to be now under the management of the Secretariat for the Environment, Sustainability and Fernando de Noronha. Obviously there will be a more sustainable look at all the businesses that are implemented on the island, all investments for the residents as well. We’re just going to know how the management unfolds, right? And it will depend a lot on how the managers will act”, she points out.
Residents of Noronha expect management to act with transparency and dialogue, ensuring the preservation of the environment and also looking at the needs of residents of the archipelago, who felt the last administrations were far removed from the daily lives of residents.
“There is a lack of management, there is a lack of signaling management. Do we have projects? He has. Plastic is not used here, it’s a nice thing, but there is a lack of guidance management, lectures, environmental projects, projects people talk about sustainability excluding the community. There is no such thing as sustainability if the community is not included in all processes, you know? So that’s it, lack of planning. It’s sitting down with the population, sitting down with the community so we can organize the island. This is what we expect from the new governor, expect from the new secretary, expect from the new administrator”, highlights the resident and businesswoman, Dora Costa.
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While the management of Fernando de Noronha has been debated in the state, his transfer is still the subject of legal action disputed by the Federal Government and the state of Pernambuco. The action was filed by the Attorney General’s Office still under Bolsonaro’s management in order to resume the administration of the archipelago and has a hearing scheduled for February 7th.
“My understanding in view of the jurisprudence that has already come up here and especially with this secretariat named Fernando de Noronha and with the change of government, a government that was there for more than eight years and never discussed this subject, I imagine it is a this issue of ownership of the island has been overcome. So, my analysis is that despite the fact that a specific secretariat was created that bears the name of Fernando de Noronha, and this is important to give ownership, right? To say that Noronha is from Pernambuco”, points out the lawyer.
The action was filed in March 2022, having already been rejected by the Pernambuco Court of Justice (TJPE), and now awaits a hearing at the Federal Supreme Court. The report contacted the Government of Pernambuco and the administration of Fernando de Noronha, but we did not receive a response until the closing of this report.
Read too: Forbidden to be born in Noronha: film portrays an island where the hospital has not delivered since 2004
Source: BdF Pernambuco
Editing: Vanessa Gonzaga
