IT’S THERE, BUT NOT QUITE: CONFLICTS IN THE PARQUE NACIONAL CAVERNAS DO PERUAÇU – MINAS GERAIS

Abstract

Protected Areas (UCs for Unidades de Conservação) generate a forum for pleas and conflicts; they are instituted, most of the times, as a result of the relationship between man and nature. Different proposals and levels of intervention interlace and awaken different kind of interests, possibilities and profits. The reflections undertaken here aim at a better understanding of the (re)production of Brazilian national parks, their representations, significations and practices for distinct players. The document deals with the lives of people from different origins and stories, whose complexity goes beyond the scientific speech and methods. Through an interpretation, though never completed, of this reality, the reflections count on bibliographies about the man/nature relationship, the UCs (users, interests, social/environment conflicts, conservation, appropriation, management), besides testimonies of the interviewed players and records of observations from meetings with the social movements and public entities. A rich bio- and social diversity, faces a context of exploration and differences that characterize the National Park “Cavernas do Peruaçu”, in northern Minas Gerais. The research outlines the different conflicts that will increasingly compete, because there is no effort towards an agreement between the multiple uses and meanings to the park and surroundings. Before its opening, foreseen for 2007, there are already announcements of a mobilization, of prophylactic nature, favorable to a non-engagement of the people who will start to coexist /survive with values and norms that demand the individual disposition to resignation and wait, in a context of "environmental preservation". Key-words: National Parks. Conservation. Users. Interests. Social/Environment Conflicts. Management.