Certifica minas café: Um novo paradigma da atuaçcã do estado na proteção ambiental?

Abstract

The Certifica Minas Café program (CMC) is an initiative of the government of the State of Minas Gerais for the certification of coffee farms. It is the only coffee certification program promoted by the Government. This research addressed one of the program’s challenges: to deal with the nonconformities found in the audits and that may represent the noncompliance with legal obligations, since the auditors of the CMC also have attributions of inspection of the use of agrochemicals. The survey had access to 570 audit reports conducted by the program in the year 2015, and randomly a sample of 230 was taken. From the reports were extracted data on six certification requirements associated with agrochemicals. In addition, interviews were conducted with the program manager and the procedures and certification forms were examined. The main contribution of this research is to propose and discuss the hypothesis that the public certification of farms and agricultural products can be considered as a new paradigm of the State’s action in environmental protection. The government’s mode of operation in certification does not fit the previous paradigms and provides important results in meeting the desired technical and legal parameters, allowing to suggest that its use be extended to other sectors, in addition to coffee growing.