Abstract
The environment undergoes constant degradation, necessitating adaptation by some individuals to achieve ecological balance. The Public Prosecutor's Office of the State of Rio Grande do Sul plays a fundamental role in environmental protection, particularly in negotiating settlement agreements regarding environmental offenses. The aim of this research was to temporally map the main environmental topics in which the State Prosecutor's Office entered into settlement agreements, identifying compliance with the agreed-upon actions and instances where these terms were not met, from January 2011 to December 2020. Additionally, a brief inference was made by correlating environmentally licensable activities in the State, using data obtained from the National Environmental Licensing Portal of the Ministry of the Environment, with potential activities related to the subjects of the settlement agreements. Significant differences were observed in the number of agreements signed in 2011 compared to 2020. From 2016 onwards, new topics emerged in settlement agreements, such as pesticides, sewage treatment, water resources, solid waste-others, revocation, and granting of environmental licenses. There was a significant number of settlement agreements in the "other hypotheses" group, indicating the importance of emerging environmental themes to be safeguarded and classified. Regarding environmental issues, the most frequent group-topics in the period were flora (42%), other hypotheses (35%), fauna (7%), noise pollution (5%), water pollution (4%), urban solid waste (4%), and air pollution (2%). This result is very similar to that found in other states, such as Minas Gerais, Paraná, and Santa Catarina. Therefore, delineating the regions where each type of offense occurs most frequently makes this study highly relevant for environmental educators and regulatory bodies to engage in educating and addressing these infractions.