Áreas de proteção ambiental municipais do Mosaico do Espinhaço: territórios protegidos? Interfaces entre conservação ambiental e gestão integrada

Abstract

Environmental Protection Area (APA) is a type of conservation unit (UC) for sustainable use instituted by SNUC with the objective of reconciling environmental conservation with human permanence and its socioeconomic activities. Due to its multiple use character, it is the management category with the most territorial representation in the country. In the Mosaico do Espinhaço: Alto Jequitinhonha / Serra do Cabral, 15 APAMs are established. The geographic layout of these areas together with their socio-environmental similarities provided the composition of four nuclei in the Mosaico do Espinhaço: Alto Jequitinhonha, Maria Fumaça, Serra do Cabral and Sempre-Vivas. The clashes that compromise the consolidation of APAMs as protected territories are related, among several aspects, to the difficulties in considering them as a priority on the municipal agenda, the lack of human and financial resources and the non-involvement of the community in the creation and development of actions of the UC. Furthermore, since expropriation is not necessary, the management bodies of the APAMs must deal with the different sectoral and territorial interests for the management of natural resources considered to be of common good. On the other hand, we observe management initiatives that strengthen local environmental conservation with the involvement of the community. The interfaces that involve the management of these areas were observed from the perspective of Mosaico do Espinhaço, which intended to analyze these categories of environmental and territorial management in a perspective of interaction and mutual strengthening. To this end, this study was supported by a qualitative approach, with subsidies from primary and secondary sources such as the support of bibliographic and documentary material and field work for the application of semi-structured interviews with managers of the selected APAMs. For the analysis and interpretation of the interviewees' statements, we used content analysis in the perspective proposed by Bardin. From these objectives and procedures, we realized that the integration of the Mosaico do Espinhaço in the face of APAMs is still incipient, due to the difficulty of mutual articulation and due to internal weaknesses that affect these categories. Therefore, it is necessary to develop strategies that start from the unit composed of the nuclei proposed by the study in order to strengthen the collaboration network that already exists in that territory.