Law No. 11.520 creating the Environmental Code of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

This Law, consisting of 246 articles divided into 16 Chapters, establishes the Environmental Code within the State of Rio Grande do Sul. This Code regulates the State normative basis for Environmental Policy, subject to the following principles: right to ecologically balanced environment essential to a healthy quality of life, imposing to everyone the duty to preserve it to ensure the protection of ecosystems and the rational use of environmental resources. To guarantee an ecologically balanced environment citizens have the right, among others to: access to information on the environmental impacts of projects and activities potentially damaging to health and the environment; access to environmental education; access to natural monuments and legally protected areas; etc.
The objectives of the environmental planning aims to assist in the formulation of the State Environmental Control Policy and articulate the environmental aspects of the various plans, programmes and actions, in particular related to: a) industrial activity; b) agricultural soil management; c) use of mineral resources; d) use of energy resources; e) use of water resources; f) basic sanitation; g) reforestation; h) coastal management; i) development of urban regions; j) cultural heritage, especially ecological value sites; l) preventive health protection; m) scientific and technological development; draw up plans for Conservation Units; elaborate special programmes aimed at integrating actions with other management systems, especially on basic sanitation, water resources, health and urban and regional development; establish the criteria for defining and implementing the State's Environmental Zoning; provide for the maintenance, preservation and recovery of the physical chemical and biological quality of the environmental resources; create, guarantee and maintain the Conservation Units, areas of historical, archaeological, artistic, natural, cultural heritage and ecotourism; include environmental aspects in the planning of the state energy matrix, etc.