O desempenho ambiental, que pode mostrar-se de grande relevância na competitividade das empresas é resultado, dentre outros fatores, de exigências legais como o licenciamento ambiental. Como um instrumento de gestão, o licenciamento é exigido legalmente para empreendimentos utilizadores de recursos naturais considerados potencial ou efetivamente poluidores e, em razão disso, é nítida a necessidade de licença ambiental para operadores portuários. Contudo, no Terminal Porto Novo do Porto Organizado do Rio Grande esta questão ainda é controvérsia e não esclarecida legalmente. As discussões sobre o licenciamento ambiental presentes neste estudo refletem, em parte, o estado da arte da gestão ambiental portuária e demostram o assunto com diferentes pontos de vista que constitui o licenciamento ambiental neste terminal portuário. Sendo assim, expõe a discussão sobre os vários fatores contribuintes para que esta realidade permaneça estática, entre eles o fato dos operadores concluírem que suas atividades estão cobertas pela Licença de Operação do Porto Organizado, as divergências existentes com relação à competência dos órgãos ambientais e a deficiência na fiscalização por parte da Autoridade Portuária. A metodologia utilizada foi a de estudo de caso, aplicada ao Terminal Porto Novo do Porto Organizado do Rio Grande. Para tal, primeiramente foram esclarecidos alguns conceitos a respeito de gestão ambiental, das atividades realizadas por operadores portuários, como se organiza e a quem compete a administração portuária e o licenciamento ambiental. Após isso, foram aplicados questionários aos operadores portuários do Terminal Porto Novo e foi realizada uma entrevista com a diretora da Divisão de Meio Ambiente, Saúde e Segurança da Superintendência do Porto Organizado do Rio Grande. Com isso, concluiu-se que é nítida a necessidade de licença ambiental para operadores portuários, sendo o mais apropriado delegar esta responsabilidade ao órgão ambiental estadual, devido aos impactos ambientais das organizações e empresas instaladas neste Terminal poderem ultrapassar os limites territoriais de mais de um município, ou seja, o do Rio Grande e de São José do Norte. Mesmo havendo contestações, uma indicação ao atendimento desta problemática é o licenciamento único do Porto Organizado e a configuração da Autoridade Portuária como órgão licenciador das atividades exercidas dentro de sua área. Ademais, outra proposta pautável seria a do autolicenciamento, ideia bastante discutida e apoiada nas esferas federais. Distante do que é entendido pelos operadores portuários, suas atividades não estão cobertas pela Licença de Operação do Porto Organizado, pois as condicionantes desta LO não fazem menção alguma às atividades destes atores. Uma das considerações mais importantes sobre a questão tratada é o fato do conhecimento dos órgãos ambientais ainda não estar claro sobre o limite que separa as responsabilidades entre as Autoridades Portuárias e os operadores portuários.

The environmental performance, which may prove very important in the competitiveness of enterprises is the result, among other factors, of the legal requirements and environmental licensing. As a management tool, the license is legally required for users of natural resources endeavors considered or potentially polluting and, for this reason, it is clear a need for an environmental permit for port operators. However, even being a legal obligation, in the case of Porto Novo Terminal of Organized Port of Rio Grande, the process of environmental licensing of its port operators is still unclear. The set of discussions presented in this study demonstrates the factors that contribute to the current reality of Terminal Porto Novo regarding the environmental licensing of its operators, reflecting in part the state of the art port environmental management and highlighting the issue with different points of view as that constitutes. Thus, exposes the discussion about the various contributors of this reality, including the fact that the operators conclude that their activities are covered by the operating license of the Organized Port, the divergences in relation to the competencies of the bodies environmental and deficiency in the oversight by the Port Authority. The methodology used was the case study, applied to Terminal Porto Novo Organized Port of Rio Grande. For such, primarily some concepts were clarified regarding environmental management of activities undertaken by port operators, how is organized and who is responsible for port management and environmental licensing. After this, questionnaires were administered to port operators Terminal Porto Novo and an interview was conducted with the director of the Division of Environmental Health and Safety of the Organized Port of Rio Grande Organized. Through the systematization of information collected, port operators, their activities and the environmental management of the Terminal were characterized. Thus, it was concluded that there is clear need for environmental permit for port operators. Due to the high degree of polluting activities and natural features of the hydrodynamics of the Patos Lagoon estuary, the environmental impacts generated by port operators Terminal Porto Novo can reach two cities, Rio Grande and São José do Norte. Thus, according to Brazilian law, the competence of the environmental licensing of these developments should not be delegated to the municipal environmental agency. Moreover, the municipal government needs major mobilization in relation to the training of professionals responsible for the process of issuing environmental permits and inspection of licensed activities. In addition, jurisdiction over the licensing of operations developed in the federal area with high pollution potential should be minimally assigned to the state environmental agency. The activities of the port operators, far from what is understood by these actors are not covered by the Operating License Organized Port. In its period of validity, which is eight years, companies that operate in Terminal can be changed because their contracts are independent of this environmental permit. Furthermore, the constraints of this LO make no mention to the activities of the operators of any port terminals. According to the Brazilian environmental legislation, environmental licensing of activities exercised in the Organized Port of Rio Grande should be left to the federal environmental agency, because of its domain area is the Union However, IBAMA delegates the licensing of port operations private terminals to the state agency. Based on this premise, the licensing of operators installed within Terminal Porto Novo should keep this line, the most appropriate to delegate this responsibility to the state environmental agency. The issue is that knowledge of environmental agencies, whether federal, state or municipal are unclear about the boundary separating the responsibilities between the port authorities and port operators. This situation prevents the full attendance of the issues assigned to them by the environmental conditions on the basis of the licenses. An indication paring address this problem is unique licensing Organized Port and configuration of the Port Authority as the licensing authority of the activities performed within their area. However, delegate this task to the Port of Rio Grande could be considered a mistake, due to the fact of SUPRG owning interest in moving goods made by operators. Another proposal would be “self-licensing”, idea widely discussed and supported by the federal, mainly in the Special Secretariat of Ports, regarding the environmental licensing in Brazil port.