Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutor's Office closes investigation into environmental crime against IMPA.
Crimes of slander and defamation against the institute will be investigated.
New Campus
The project
With infrastructure comparable to that of the world’s leading research centers, the new campus of the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) will take the institute’s ability to contribute to Brazilian society to a new level, helping to attract the best students, professors and researchers in the world.
Activities will undergo a process of diversification, with more technical projects to be carried out, expanding partnerships with companies to solve concrete problems in the productive sector, as well as strengthening our initiatives in the area of education.
There will be four free-standing, narrow and parallel pavilions on the sloping ground. A bold and sustainable construction that will take up less than 4% of the area.
Always open to dialogue, IMPA presented the project to the community and made adjustments to meet neighbors’ requests. With the approvals and licenses from Rio’s City Hall, the first step is to promote safety works on the land, such as slope containment, drainage and land stabilization, in a region that is impacted by heavy seasonal rains.
Located at Rua Barão de Oliveira Castro, 60, in Jardim Botânico, in Rio de Janeiro’s South Zone, the land was privately donated and is adjacent to IMPA’s current headquarters.
IMPA’s expansion is funded by the federal government through the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and by donations from the private sector.
The Project
Sustainability
The design of the new campus was entirely conceived to help solve environmental problems. From the choice of lighter, low-impact building materials to the rational use of water and energy efficiency management.
Sustainability
Media
Read the reports released by IMPA and the main news related to the construction of the new campus.
Transparency
As a principle of good governance, IMPA bases its management on the transparency of its processes and results.
We have published the main documents relating to the construction of the new campus.
Questions Frequent
According to RJ State Law No. 126, of May 10, 1977, the Silence Law, the permitted hours for the use of machinery and equipment used in construction, demolition and general work is from 7am to 10pm. However, we are working shorter hours than those permitted by law:from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6pm.
Yes, the Complementary Law no. 28 of16 of April 1996 allows the installation and operation of new educational establishments in the Residential Zones in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, including the ZR-1 where the land is located.
Over the last few years, IMPA has held numerous meetings with the official associations of the Botanical Garden and with the neighbors of the street, and many of their requests have been met, including the reduction of the building by eliminating a block.
In addition to the reduced working hours, there will be a wheel-washing system for the trucks to prevent debris from being scattered on the streets. The institute has also invited an independent, unpaid ombudsman to receive any complaints and suggestions. Both IMPA and the construction company are available full time to make adjustments. One idea that has already been accepted is the creation of a green belt around the building, to maintain the privacy of the neighbors. To do this, we will use some of the new saplings that will be planted by the institute.
The current campus will continue to operate. The project is to expand IMPA’s facilities with the aim of diversifying the activities it carries out and increasing its contribution to society. The new building will have classrooms, an auditorium, laboratories and accommodation, and with this we will increase the institute’s actions and achievements, such as partnerships with the productive sector and the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP). We will also expand teacher training and attract researchers and students of excellence from Brazil and around the world.
No. The construction of the new IMPA campus is outside the Tijuca National Park and outside the buffer zone. We have the approval of the Municipal Department of the Environment (SMAC), and the start of the work was preceded by almost 30 technical studies, including zoological and botanical ones.
Our commitment is to impact nature as little as possible. The project won the most important international competition for sustainable architectural projects, the 2017 Recognition Award from the Lafarge Holcim Foundation in Switzerland. The building occupies less than 4% of the site and we will make environmental compensation, as directed by SMAC. We will plant native species of saplings equivalent to 16.5 times the number of trees that will eventually be removed. Built on pilotis, the buildings, with three floors above ground, will be staggered in relation to the terrain, maintaining the flow of local fauna. A biologist is monitoring movements on the site, and a veterinarian will provide assistance in the event of any eventuality.
In addition, the roofs of the buildings will have gardens (“green roofs”) for thermal comfort and photovoltaic panels to generate energy. The idea is that, from an aerial view, the building blends in with the surrounding forest. Read more:https://impa.br/novo-campus/sustentabilidade
One of the aims of the first phase of the work is precisely to make the land more stable. Much of the rainfall problem in the region is due to disorganized urban growth, which means that the land in the area is not prepared for the proper drainage of water. IMPA will carry out slope containment, earthworks and drainage, which consists of a robust catchment system, with a water retention basin on an existing site that will form a lake with a capacity of 500,000 liters, as well as controlled conveyance to the public network. There will also be hydraulic channels and ladders that will form a protective belt around the houses next to the land. Read more: https://impa.br/novo-campus/sustentabilidade
The aim of IMPA’s sustainable campus is to expand and diversify the institute’s activities, further increasing its scientific and social contribution to Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. In addition to training masters and doctors and training basic education teachers, IMPA carries out high-level research, forms partnerships with the productive sector and plays a fundamental role in popularizing mathematics. One of its main achievements is the OBMEP (Brazilian Public School Mathematics Olympiad), which reaches 20 million students across the country and is an important tool for social mobility through education.
With the new campus, whose structure is comparable to that of the world’s leading research centers, IMPA will be able to intensify its work of excellence in these areas. The expansion will benefit students, researchers, the scientific community, Cariocas and Brazilians.
IMPA’s new campus will have 67 offices for researchers, 7 classrooms, a 213-seat auditorium, 4 study rooms, computer labs, a data processing center and a 258m² reading room with a virtual library. 129 student housing units, a cafeteria and communal areas will also be built.
The student housing units are intended primarily for the institute’s master’s and doctoral students, who live on exclusive dedication scholarships of R$1,500 (master’s) and R$2,200 (doctorate), and find it difficult to find adequate housing in Rio de Janeiro, a city with a high cost of living. In this context, the accommodation will significantly improve the productivity and quality of life of IMPA’s students, who often come from different parts and social classes of Brazil and the world. Offering on-campus accommodation is a common practice at many universities and institutions around the world.
No. The work on the sustainable campus does not fall within the legal requirement to carry out an Environmental Impact Study and Environmental Impact Report (EIA/Rima). At federal level, Article 2 of CONAMA Resolution No. 01/1986 sets out which projects are subject to the prior completion of an EIA/Rima, and does not require studies to be carried out for projects similar to those of IMPA.
In Rio de Janeiro, the requirement to carry out an EIA/Rima is governed by State Law No. 1.356/1988, which lists the activities that modify the environment that must be licensed through the study. Again, the construction work on IMPA’s new campus is not one of the activities subject to these studies, nor is there a requirement to hold a public hearing.
Nor does the Atlantic Forest Biome Law require a study for the suppression of vegetation in the case of buildings on the urban perimeter. Therefore, there is no requirement to prepare an EIA/Rima for the construction of IMPA’s sustainable campus.
No. As the construction of the new campus is not on the list of activities that require an EIA/Environmental Impact Assessment, there is also no obligation to present an alternative location, the assessment of which is part of this study. The new building is an extension of IMPA’s campus and is therefore located on land adjacent to the current headquarters. Of course, the extension can only be carried out in the area where IMPA already has its campus, in order to take advantage of and complement the existing structure.
The project also took into account the characteristics of the land received by IMPA and the new campus will be built on the site of a deactivated quarry that has already been altered/degraded, in full compliance with the Atlantic Forest Biome Law. Thus, the area designated for construction, located on the lower levels of the land, is the most suitable for the facility.
Yes, the law expressly allows the cutting down, suppression and exploitation of vegetation in the Atlantic Forest biome, but it establishes a series of restrictions so that these activities do not compromise the ecological balance of the area. According to the Atlantic Forest Biome Law, the analysis of the environmental viability of a project or activity depends on verifying the existence and characterization of the vegetation. The authorization for vegetation suppression issued by SMAC lists the numbering of each tree specimen subject to felling or transplanting.
All cutting and removal of vegetation in the Atlantic Forest biome is subject to environmental compensation. In the case of IMPA, the compensation measure established was the planting of 4,215 saplings of native Atlantic Forest species (16.5 times the number of trees cut down). With the compensation, there will be forest enrichment, due to the removal of exotic species (jackfruit trees) and the planting of various native species, which will contribute to the proliferation of the diversity of fauna and flora.
Finally, the law establishes that new developments that involve cutting down or suppressing vegetation in the Atlantic Forest biome should preferably be implemented in areas that have already been altered or degraded. This is exactly the case with the new IMPA campus. The project took into account the topography of the site and the existence of an old quarry, so that site preparation would have as little impact as possible, reducing earthmoving activities and the need to cut down trees. In other words, the campus will be built in an anthropized area (deactivated quarry), outside the limits of PARNA Tijuca and its buffer zone.
Ombudsman
IMPA is expanding its structure with responsibility and dialog with society. In this direction, it is innovating by proposing the installation of an Ombudsman’s Office to monitor the construction of the new campus, with the aim of expanding the space for listening to residents and institutions linked to the project.
Recognizing that a project of this size will have an impact on the surrounding area, one of the important measures to minimize this is to seek practical impact reduction measures and greater predictability. This body will serve as a point of balance and cooperation in the search for possible and necessary understandings during the period of intervention on the ground.
The Ombudsman brings the fullest reference to a citizen listener, with a spirit of the common good, capable of promoting dialogues in the public interest that involve IMPA’s intervention. The Ombudsman will have access to IMPA’s highest decision-making bodies.
Without replacing the institutional channel, its contribution reinforces institutional communication access and reaffirms an instance of understanding and monitoring the whole process.