Brazil's environment council sets licensing rules for aquaculture projects

Brazil's National Environment Council (CONAMA) has issued Resolution No. 517, which sets national rules and criteria for the environmental licensing of aquaculture. The resolution, signed Oct 14, 2026 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on Oct 16, revokes CONAMA Resolution No. 413 of July 26, 2009.

Under the resolution, the licensing procedure depends on a project's pollution potential. The resolution bases that potential on production volume, the species farmed and whether the system is open or closed. An open system releases used water into a water body or sits in one. A closed system releases none.

Small projects with open or closed systems, which the resolution classes as low pollution potential, may use a license by adhesion and commitment (LAC) if they use species authorized by the federal environmental agency and meet the other legal requirements for that type of license. Medium-sized open systems that use species authorized by the federal environmental agency may use a single environmental license (LAU).

Large open-system projects installed directly in water bodies and using federally authorized species will go through a two-phase procedure: a preliminary license, then an installation and operation license. The licensing agency may require the three-phase procedure if they use an exotic species with high invasive potential.

The two-phase procedure applies only if such projects need no new dams and are not in stretches of water with recurring blooms of organisms that may produce toxins that could compromise raw water for public supply. If either condition is not met, the full three-phase procedure applies, according to the resolution.

Aquaculture will be authorized with native species. Exotic or hybrid species are allowed only when a federal normative act expressly authorizes them. Operators must notify the licensing agency of mass escapes, which the resolution defines as the escape of one third or more of the farmed population.

The resolution does not apply to coastal shrimp farming, which is governed by a separate instrument.

The federal environmental agency must revise its list of exotic species authorized for aquaculture within 120 days of publication. The resolution takes effect 180 days after publication. Operating projects that have no environmental license must apply for a Corrective Operating License (LOC).

The resolution is signed by João Paulo Ribeiro Capobianco, the council's president.