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Abstract Scholarly papers on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Brazil were reviewed aiming at surveying the state of research in this field. Searches in three databases identified 131 papers published between 1985 and 2015. They were classified under: case analysis (45%); analysis of the EIA system (32%), discussion about methods (15%) and evaluation of quality of EIA documents (8%). It was found that those papers: (i) deal with highly complex cases; (ii) identify several weaknesses in the EIA system, but also some achievements and improvements; (iii) address a number of weaknesses identified in other studies; and (iv) show recurrent deficiencies, as well as temporal evolution in the quality of EIA documents. Some topics often pointed as weaknesses in the national debate and the international literature were not addressed in this set of papers. This research field is at an early development stage in Brazil, but features a growing number of publications.

Abstract The Brazilian sugarcane industry has experienced a rapid expansion during the 2000s. The prediction of the sugarcane crop expansion in the coming decades raises controversy about social and environmental impacts, which are partially evaluated in the current energy planning. In order to integrate these discussions to the decision-making, this article aims at presenting a Strategic Environmental Assessment framework to support the sugarcane expansion planning as presented in the national Decennial Energy Plan. The main positive aspects of this framework include: the integration of environmental, social and economic issues providing strategic focus and sustainability to the decision-making; the proposition of sustainability indicators whose data are available for watershed scale; and guidelines for analyzing alternative scenarios established in the energy planning. The authors believe this framework allows integrating sustainability into the decision-making of the sugarcane expansion planning supported by the Strategic Environmental Assessment.