Municipal Environmental Licensing and the Archaeological Research in Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Environmental licensing has been granted to municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul that have an approved Environmental Plan and Municipal Environment Council. The intention is to decentralize the decisions of the state environmental agency, the responsibilities of authorizing certain works to municipalities that so plead. The problem, which we now analyze, is how to continue guaranteeing conducting archaeological research in municipal licensing, both in environmental plans, as well as in areas destined to engineering works, when impacting the material heritage (historical-cultural and archaeological).