Gestão da paisagem cultural: desafios e perspectivas diante do processo de metropolização na APA Carste de Lagoa Santa/MG

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the territory of the Lagoa Santa Karst Environmental Protection Area (APA, in Portuguese) as a federal protected area located in the North Vector expansion area of the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region in Minas Gerais. We endeavored to analyse the main characteristics and possible impacts on the landscape and cultural heritage through Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory, by approaching the cartographic proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, who provide a philosophy that allows for the creation of a cartography as a method, to better understand the complex reality of the territory and territorialities inherent to the Karst APA. The protected area was regarded as a device in which there is an inhomogeneous, multifaceted, multiscaled urbanization of forged and forging actors (human and non-human) and various occupation processes. This urbanization reflects elements of neoliberalism; the marketization of things and people. Urbanization processes have contributed to the increase in environmental impacts and significantly boost population indices in various parts of the territory. Nevertheless, the protected area still safeguards traditional cultural areas that express themselves through local communities in their know-how as well as religious songs and rituals. The tradition of culinary production of greengrocers and homemade cookies; cultural manifestations like Candombe, Folias de Reis and Congado have managed to survive in the midst of new cultures flowing into the protected area. These human and non-human actors, alongside the built heritage as well as the archaeological and paleontological sites, comprise the regional culture, but are at risk due to the process of metropolization. Despite this process, it is clear that the diversity of material and immaterial heritage constitutes an important factor for the qualification of the Karst APA as a Brazilian cultural landscape, which could help in strengthening the cultural resistance present in its territory.