Work

A Pluriversal Framework for Environmental Impact Assessment and Project-Level Decision-Making

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: The concept of sustainability emerged to address the socio-environmental challenges of a planet in crisis. While sustainability can be interpreted through numerous lenses, the definition prevailing in policies and programs remains predominantly market-driven, colonizing, oriented toward economic progress. This definition has shaped project development and decision-making processes with asymmetrical environmental and social outcomes. We argue that alternative understandings of sustainability - particularly those stemming from dissident and decolonial epistemologies - can ingrain the benefits and externalities of development. Drawing from Political Ecology and post-development theories, we propose a ‘Pluriversal Framework’ to guide environmental decision-making in infrastructure projects. Our framework is based on four categories: I) Capital Non-Substitutability; II) Pluriversal Governance and the Right to Reject Projects; III) Pluriversal Knowledge; and IV) Biocultural indicators. As an environmental decision-making process, we discussed the institutions and epistemologies governing sustainability within Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It is evident that a market-oriented, economic growth-driven approach to sustainability dominates the Impact Assessment process. Conversely, emerging opportunities and experiences indicate the rise of dissident approaches in infrastructure projects decision-making. Our analysis suggests that while a purely decolonial approach is unlikely to manifest within EIA, discussing insights from Political Ecology is fundamental to contesting the epistemological arena of EIA and preventing the complete co-optation of the environmental project-level decision-making process by a purely market-based logic.

Source: Research Square

DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-11116916/v1

Authors: Guilherme Prado Alves, Tarse Barbosa Cabello, Robert J. Buschbacher, Tânia Pereira Christopoulos, Evandro Mateus Moretto

Institutions: Universidade de São Paulo, University of Florida

Language: English

Topic: Environmental and Social Impact Assessments

Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: green