Open Data and Active Transparency in Environment Issues (BR0098)

Lead government institution Ministry of Environment Civil servant in charge for implementing at lead government institution Anderson Couto Position - Department Special Advisor for Internal Auditing/ Internal Auditing E-mail anderson.couto@mma.gov.br Telephone 55 61 2028 1525 Other involved actors Government Ministry of Environment Environment National Council (Conama) Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) Brazilian Forest Service National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) National Institute for Space Research (INPE) Civil society, private sector, group of workers and multilateral actors World Wild Fund for Nature Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora) InfoAmazonia Institute for Man and the Environment of the Amazon Region (Imazon) Forest Code Observatory Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed Expand and enhance active transparency in the environmental area, with participation of civil society, in order to make available data to citizens, considering its format, detail level and updating Main objective To foster open data availability and to improve active transparency mechanisms in the environmental area, in particular for Environmental License, Deforestation and Forest Conservation (wood flow, animal transportation guide, CAR - rural environmental register) Commitment short description It seeks to advance in the establishment of dialogue arenas among governmental departments and civil society organizations, which deal with environmental matter OGP Challenge addressed by the Commitment Increasing public integrity More effective public resources management Corporative accountability increment Commitment relevance It can make government and society work closer, and, therefore, improve the available data quality at the environmental area Goal To obtain more and better environmental information, considering the legal obligations, the demand and the database opening

15. Open Data and Active Transparency in Environment Issues

Commitment Text:

Make room for dialogue between government and society, aiming at generating and implementing actions related to transparency in environment issues

The commitment seeks to improve active transparency mechanisms for environment issues, as well as to advance in making room for a better interaction between governmental areas and civil society, with the intent of building more effective actions to disclose environmental information in better quality and greater number.

15.1 – Input contribution by the society to the Open Data Plan

15.2 –The institutions shall present: a summary paper, which contains an overview of what was implemented about transparency, strategic plan commitments on transparency and the Open Data Plan status, too

15.3 - Civil society presents an expectation of data/format to be available (by survey)

15.4 –Make an event with the aim of consolidating information and building joint activities, as well as establishing a group for monitoring

15.5 – Engender a summary paper, with correspondent actions, people who are in charge, and deadlines (for next year)

15.6 – Execution of the established actions

Responsible institution: Ministry of Environment

Supporting institutions: Environment National Council (Conama), Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Brazilian Forest Service, National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), National Institute for Space Research (INPE), World Wild Fund for Nature, Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture, Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora), InfoAmazonia, Institute for Man and the Environment of the Amazon Region (Imazon), Forest Code Observatory

Start date: December 2016 . End date: November 2018

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to improve active transparency mechanisms for environment issues, in particular environmental licenses, deforestation, and forest conservation. The commitment calls for the participation of civil society. The government expects to establish dialogue between governmental departments and civil society organizations. It will also identify challenges to, opportunities for, and demands for opening environmental datasets.

There is a growing need for open data regarding the environment in Brazil. For example, legislation created the open dataset of the Rural Environment Registration (CAR, Cadastro Ambiental Rural) in 2012. However, the government released the dataset in 2016.[1] CAR, an active transparency dataset, identifies all rural properties in Brazil. It also provides key information on their environment impact. Civil society considers the dataset key in mapping deforestation and other phenomena.[2] Based on the CAR dataset, for example, a 2017 study showed that owners of rural properties did little to reverse their social environmental impact in recent years.[3] Motivated by civil society demands, the commitment aims to build on the publication of datasets such as the CAR.

The commitment’s level of specificity is high. Concrete deliverables include the improvement of an open data plan, the hosting of an event, and the establishment of a monitoring group.

The commitment is mostly relevant to the OGP value of access to information. However, it is also relevant to civic participation, due to its collaborative nature. Given the expected release of the open datasets, the commitment is also relevant to the value of technology and innovation.

The commitment has a minor potential impact, mostly due to its focus on preliminary steps. Nonetheless, greater transparency in environmental information is a priority issue in Brazil. The commitment focuses on gathering civil society expectations, summarizing current efforts, and drafting a plan with new commitments. When implemented, the plan could lead to transformative outputs. However, without knowing the content of the plan or the level of ambition of the proposed reforms, it is not possible to consider the impact to be major.

Completion

The commitment has seen limited completion.

In May 2017, the government published civil society inputs to the Ministerial Open Data Plan (milestones 15.1).[4] Two civil society members interviewed by the IRM researcher confirmed the consultation process (Dário Cardoso and Joara Marchezini). Their confirmations were based on talks with those involved in the commitment implementation phase. The interviewees also confirmed that the government solicited their requests for datasets. The open data plan established a due date of November 2017 for the list of datasets to be released. Data publication was to start in December 2017.[5]

The government began drafting the summary paper of current initiatives, strategic commitments, and status of the open data plan (milestone 15.2). However, the government did not complete the paper by June 2017.[6] The IRM researcher could not find any record of the summary paper and did not receive information directly from the government. The rest of the milestones had not been started as of June 2017, including the establishment of a monitoring group.

The action plan set a deadline of October 2017 for milestones 15.1-15.5, which puts the commitment behind schedule.

Early Results (if any)

Given the limited level of commitment completion, it is not possible to assess early results.

Next Steps

The commitment should be fully implemented during the remainder of the action plan. In its midterm self-assessment report, the government acknowledged the main challenges of moving forward. Those include determining the processes for providing, integrating, and sharing new environmental data, and building a single portal to disclose environmental information and data.

A civil society interviewee stated that this commitment could have an important impact if three specific datasets are improved: CAR, the Declaration of Forest Origin (DOF), and the Animal Transit Guide (GTA). As described above, CAR refers to the registration of rural properties and their efforts to reduce their environmental impact. DOF is the certificate of origin of forestall products and can be used, for example, to investigate illegal commerce of environmental products.[7] GTA involves data on animal transportation and can be used to track, for example, illegal trafficking of oxen.[8]

The government could also incentivize the use of open datasets to increase public accountability. These efforts could include developing private sector and civil society tools or applications that use the data to increase transparency in the environmental sector.

15. Open Data and Active Transparency in Environment Issues

Commitment Text:

Make room for dialogue between government and society, aiming at generating and implementing actions related to transparency in environment issues.

The commitment seeks to improve active transparency mechanisms for environment issues, as well as to advance in making room for a better interaction between governmental areas and civil society, with the intent of building more effective actions to disclose environmental information in better quality and greater number.

More specifically, the commitment was set out to achieve the following milestones:

15.1 – Input contribution by the society to the Open Data Plan

15.2 – The institutions shall present: a summary paper, which contains an overview of what was implemented about transparency, strategic plan commitments on transparency and the Open Data Plan status, too

15.3 – Civil society presents an expectation of data/format to be available (by survey)

15.4 – Make an event with the aim of consolidating information and building joint activities, as well as establishing a group for monitoring

15.5 – Engender a summary paper, with correspondent actions, people who are in charge, and deadlines (for next year)

15.6 – Execution of the established actions

Responsible institution: Ministry of Environment

Supporting institutions: Environment National Council (Conama), Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Brazilian Forest Service, National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), National Institute for Space Research (INPE), World Wild Fund for Nature, Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture, Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora), InfoAmazonia, Institute for Man and the Environment of the Amazon Region (Imazon), Forest Code Observatory

Start Date: December 2016...                         End Date: November 2018

Commitment Aim:

This commitment aimed to improve active transparency mechanisms for environmental issues—in particular environmental licenses, deforestation, and forest conservation. The commitment calls for the participation of civil society. The government expects to establish dialogue between governmental departments and civil society organizations. It would also identify challenges to, opportunities for, and demand for opening environmental datasets.

There is a growing need for open data regarding the environment in Brazil. For example, legislation created the open dataset of the Rural Environment Registration (CAR, Cadastro Ambiental Rural) in 2012. However, the government released the dataset in 2016. [102] CAR, an active transparency dataset, identifies all rural properties in Brazil and provides key information on their environmental impact. Civil society considers the dataset key to mapping deforestation and other phenomena. [103] Based on the CAR dataset, for example, a 2017 study showed that owners of rural properties had done little to reverse their social environmental impact in recent years. [104] Motivated by civil society demands, the commitment aimed to build on the publication of datasets such as the CAR.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The commitment saw limited completion and is behind schedule. The government completed Milestone 15.1. The commitment involved the government publishing civil society inputs to the Ministerial Open Data Plan. Milestone 15.2 was underway. It involved drafting a summary paper of current initiatives, strategic commitments, and the status of the open data plan. The rest of the milestones had not been started.

End of term: Substantial

Milestones 15.1–15.4 have been completed. Milestone 15.5 was not. Thus, the status of the commitment is substantially completed.

According to the implementation monitoring report, the government completed all milestones of the commitment. [105] The documents are not available online, but the IRM researcher interviewed a civil society representative who submitted the documents for verification (Renato Morgado, from the Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification). However, another civil society member states, “[T]he milestones were delivered, but they had low specificity” (Joara Marchezini, from Article 19).

Milestone 15.2 involved a summary paper with an overview of what was implemented and what was completed. No such document could be found online. However, the previously published open data plan [106] led to a list of demands and suggestions sent by civil society to government officials. This list was forwarded to the IRM researcher by a civil society member who participated in the process. The list included detailed tasks, as well as a detailed analysis of the information collected as part of Milestone 15.1.

Milestone 15.3 involved a survey presented by civil society on expectations of data and the format of data. This task was completed. No survey could be found online, but the civil society representative sent the document to the IRM researcher for verification. That document contains a detailed list of activities that civil society suggests should be implemented (with more than 20 suggested tasks, distributed along five areas of analysis).

Milestone 15.4 involved an event promoting the consolidated information and activities. An event on open data related to the commitment occurred in April 2018. [107] A civil society representative informed the IRM researcher that the event focused on discussing the content of Milestone 15.5.

Milestone 15.5 involved another summary paper. The IRM researcher was unable to find this paper online, but it was submitted for review by a civil society representative. The document is a follow-up of Milestone 15.3 and includes a proposed implementation timeline. It also includes an exchange of communication between government and civil society, and details on the implementation of open data requests on specific issues, from technical standards to dataset openness.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

Civic Participation: Marginal

This commitment aimed to improve transparency mechanisms for environmental issues and promote open data opportunities based on the participation of civil society organizations. Civil society member Joara Marchezini, from Article 19, stated that the commitment advanced open government by promoting an interaction between government and civil society that did not exist before. The process led to new datasets being opened and to civic participation opportunities. Marchezini also argues that the commitment was delayed and promoted mostly small steps in transparency and participation.

Carried Forward?

The government did not include this commitment in the fourth national action plan. However, the action plan does include a commitment to increase transparency and civic engagement in the planning and implementation of climate change policies.