The environmental management model currently adopted in Brazil is marked by decentralization and by mechanisms of participation and representation of the Society considered innovative. In this model two instruments are distinguished: the environmental licensing and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), in general applied jointly. This is a case study of an educational institution environmental licensing and EIA, occurred in Belo Horizonte (MG) from the end of the year of 1999. The process was lead by the Environmental Commission, and got City Department of Environmental Affairs technical and administrative support. Due to the area environmental value and to the regional peculiarities, the case has generated great controversies and mobilized the Society. The inquiry concentrates in the quarrel and definition, by the Environmental Commission, of impact mitigation and compensation measures, and has as source the administrative proceeding of environmental licensing and EIA, which congregates the vast documentation produced. The objectives are to analyze the relevancy of each adopted measure, the interventions of the varied actors and the monitoring actions. The research allowed to evidence, in the case study, the contradictions of a process of environmental licensing and EIA. Important virtues were verified, as the prevention of impacts and the existence of profits for the Society that would hardly occur without the accomplishment of the process ? such as the construction of a public park and the recuperation of a preservation area. However, the case also reflects Brazilian problems, as the State deficiencies and the exaggeration between the environmental politics and others public politics. Also was evident that, for many actors of the process, the environmental question still means a mere speech, or nor this.