Recuperação de áreas degradadas pela mineração em regiões de interesse patrimonial

Abstract

This dissertation emerged from an acknowledgment of the importance of both landscape and mining for the human population. It represents an attempt to study the conflicting interaction between the conservation of cultural heritage on the one hand and the development of mining on the other, seeking an harmonic relationship between the two arenas as the only alternative towards sustainability. Mining activity gave birth to the state of Minas Gerais and has played a significant role in its economy, politics, society and culture ever since. With the discovery of gold in the colony, countryside portions of the land were rapidly populated. Roads were opened, villages were founded, territories were delimited and the economy was driven. Mining became a vital activity for the country development and peoples welfare. Patterns of mineral extraction and processing in recent decades, however, have brought about several environmental issues, mainly, significant changes in landscape. Landscape plays a fundamental and crucial role in society, as it configures the scenario where people live, bearing directly on the formation of personal identities, the appropriation of places and the consolidation of emotional security. It is not uncommon to find mineral resources in areas of important value to the community. Mining also leaves a legacy of a new cultural landscape, conformed to new environmental, physical, social, cultural and economic relationships thereby estabilished. This dissertation discusses the evolution of mining and cultural laws and seeks alternatives to reconcile economic growth without destroying the cultural landscapes and restoration of the degraded landscape without erasing history and memory.