Governança para sustentabilidade do turismo nas áreas protegidas: tradições, contradições e projeções na Serra do Cipó/MG

Abstract

Tourism is a social practice that primarily uses geographic space as its object of consumption. Consequently, the activity requires the adaptation of territories to its material and immaterial demands, causing environmental and social changes. Therefore, tourism, as an economic activity, needs to be planned sustainably to reproduce itself, especially in tourist destinations where its consequences are more easily perceived. In Serra do Cipó, located in the central region of Minas Gerais, the appropriation of territories by tourism is in full development, with a series of socio-spatial transformations underway. Several studies conducted in the area since the 2000s, within the Serra do Cipó National Park and the Morro da Pedreira Environmental Protection Area – federal Conservation Units – and surrounding areas, demonstrate a considerable and accelerated transformation of the Cipó region, with pronounced and increasing socio-environmental impacts. The presented scenario of multiple expressions and, consequently, multiple interferences from tourism activity in the region where the Federal Conservation Units occur are factors that should warrant close attention from ICMBio managers, given that they generate multiple responses to such scenarios, some of which may be misaligned with its Institutional Mission. This thesis aims to analyze how the management of the Serra do Cipó National Park and the Morro da Pedreira Environmental Protection Area (ICMBio Serra do Cipó/MG) interacts with the Cipó region, in the face of socio-spatial transformations caused by tourism, considering both the Institutional Mission and Constitutional Values. Using the Historical Geographical Materialist Method, the main methodological tool employed was the so-called "Methodological Tripod" of Geography, proposed by professors from UFMG. This tool is based on the acts of locating, describing, and analyzing, through geographical reasoning that considers fundamental concepts of geography, such as space, time, and scale. Therefore, by altering angles and scales, the mutual interaction between the management of the two Conservation Units and the Cipoense Space is analyzed over time, considering different areas of knowledge to understand what space is communicating about these relationships. A co-evolution was identified between the observed dialectical pair (Conservation Units and the Cipoense Space), in which both local factors and those of a national and even international nature are responsible for the waves of transformation through which the changes occurred. The results point to a managerial maturation of the ICMBio agency, which, in turn, needs to make multiple efforts to build a more orchestrated governance among the three federated entities (Union, State, and Municipalities) in the area, given the context of decentralization of the environmental agenda. It is also necessary to develop managerial skills that value the participation of local communities in the co-creation of plans that are truly inclusive, while simultaneously generating and distributing wealth at the local level and fostering arrangements in which nature can express itself vigorously.