José Luiz de Andrade Franco

Armando Magalhães Corrêa: gente e natureza de um sertão quase metropolitano

The article examines the social and environmental thought of Armando Magalhaes Correa (1889-1944) as expressed in his book O sertao carioca (1936). He was part of a generation of pioneer conservationists in Brazil who-contrary to what is generally believed-were able to bring the social and natural dimensions together, blending the need to defend nature with the imperative of improving the living conditions for people in Brazils interior. Focusing on people residing in the rural outskirts of Rio de Janeiro city around 1930, Correa captures a microcosm that illustrates the social and cultural distances separating Brazilian urbanites and sertao dwellers. He provides clear descriptions of the natural world within a largely urbanized area that stretches from the Jacarepagua lowlands to Pedra de Guaratiba. He explores the productive activities of the regions inhabitants and makes conservationist suggestions that were to influence governmental policy.

O conceito de biodiversidade e a história da biologia da conservação: da preservação da wilderness à conservação da biodiversidade

The essay deals with the emergence of the concept of biodiversity and with the rise of conservation biology as a subdiscipline of biology. It shows the relationship between conservation biology and the activism that develops with the objective of promoting biodiversity conservation. It refers to how, over time, in the field of concerns about the protection of natural heritage, there has been a shift from the notion of preservation of wilderness to the conservation of biodiversity.

Cândido de Mello Leitão: as ciências biológicas e a valorização da natureza e da diversidade da vida

This exploration of the thought of Brazilian zoologist Cândido de Mello Leitao (1886-1948) concentrates on his concern with valuing scientific knowledge and nature in all its diversity. The article highlights relevant episodes from his personal and professional life and analyzes part of his bibliographic production, published between 1935 and 1947. Mello Leitao asserted the need for a civilizing process that could reconcile man and the natural world. Science and the State should share responsibilities in this endeavor, especially in Brazil, which Mello Leitao felt was searching for a national identity and a model of civilization.

Frederico Carlos Hoehne: a atualidade de um pioneiro no campo da proteção á natureza do Brasil

ABSTRACT The text examines the writings of the Brazilian botanist Frederico Carlos Hoehne (1882-1959) about the protection of nature. It argues that Hoehne was a pioneer on the topic among Brazilian scientists. In his work as a scientist, writer and director of research institutes, he contributed to the emergence of an environmental consciousness in Brazil. His approach mixed scientific arguments with esthetics and with appeals related to national identity. It sustains that his mostly forgotten ideas are worth retrieving and examining with attention.

Alberto José Sampaio: um botânico brasileiro e o seu programa de proteção à natureza

O texto discorre sobre a obra cientifica e as proposicoes de protecao a natureza do botânico brasileiro Alberto Jose Sampaio (1881- 1946), um dos maiores conhecedores da flora brasileira e um dos pioneiros do conservacionismo no pais. Analisa diversos pontos de sua trajetoria de cientista, ativista e professor. A atencao recai especialmente sobre as suas tres principais producoes literarias, publicadas entre 1926 e 1935, nas quais focaliza a distribuicao geografica dos conjuntos de vegetacao do Brasil e propoe diversos programas de aproveitamento racional e de preservacao dos recursos naturais brasileiros. Mostra-se que as suas ideias estavam influenciadas pelos ideais de um estado forte capaz de construir uma nova identidade nacional, com base na riqueza da natureza brasileira. A conclusao e que as ideias de Sampaio foram avancadas para a sua epoca e que elas conservam grande parte de sua atualidade, mesmo depois de decadas de prevalencia de uma ideologia desenvolvimentista em que ele e diversos cientistas naturais conservacionistas seus contemporâneos foram quase inteiramente esquecidos.

Devastação Florestal no oeste brasileiro: colonização, migração e a expansão da fronteira agrícola em Goiás

This paper examines the Environmental History of the expansion of the agricultural frontier and population growth in Goias, the central region of Brazil, and its connection to deforestation during the first half of the twentieth century. This paper aims to analyze the deforestation that occurred due to human settlement of the area, especially during the 1930s and 1940s, when the region experienced a large migratory flux, due to the colonization policy known as the “March to the West” (Marcha para Oeste). The territory studied here in this paper, the “Mato Grosso of Goias”, was an enclave of seasonal tropical forest amidst the Cerrado. This paper utilizes different sources such as travel accounts, official documents, legislation, newspaper articles, memoirs, letters, and scientific records, among others. The research carried out focuses on the first records of the formation of the forest, demonstrating the impact of migration and colonization policies and the sequential environmental devastation of the area.

As RPPNs Como Estratégia Para a Conservação da Biodiversidade: O caso da Chapada dos Veadeiros

As Reservas Particulares do Patrimonio Natural – RPPNs - sao unidades de conservacao de uso sustentavel criadas em propriedades privadas, de forma voluntaria. As restricoes a que estao sujeitas as tornam semelhantes as unidades de conservacao de protecao integral. Desta forma, podem promover a conservacao de seus habitats sem grandes intervencoes humanas. A Chapada dos Veadeiros, regiao localizada no nordeste de Goias, tem 15 RPPNs federais, localizadas em torno do Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Veadeiros, na sua zona de amortecimento. Por ser a Chapada dos Veadeiros habitada ha tempos por varios proprietarios de terras e fazendeiros, a criacao de RPPNs representa uma estrategia viavel para a regiao, considerada area prioritaria para projetos de conservacao, por ONGs como a Conservation International (CI), a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) e a The Nature Conservancy (TNC), pelo Ministerio do Meio Ambiente (MMA) e pelo Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservacao da Biodiversidade (ICMBIO). O artigo demostra que as RPPNs podem e devem ser uma alternativa importante para a implementacao de um planejamento territorial desenvolvido em parceria com a comunidade local. Nesta revisao, foi investigada a contribuicao das RPPNs na Chapada dos Veadeiros para a conservacao da biodiversidade local e o seu processo de implementacao.

Fronteira, História e Natureza: a construção simbólica do Oeste Brasileiro (1930-1940)

This article aims to present the discourses on the occupation of the Brazilian West in the publications of Cassiano Ricardo, Henrique Silva and Zoroastro Artiaga published in the magazines Cultura Politica (1941-1945), Informacion Goyana (1917-1935), Revista Oeste (1942-1944) and in other works published during the 1940s. Frontier and nature are the analytical categories the article deals with, from an Environmental History perspective. The analysis privileges the scientific and ideological perspectives present in the works studied, which allow for the identification of the symbolic construction of the Brazilian West.

Frederico Carlos Hoehne: viagem à Araucarilândia

The text is based on the travel notes written by the Brazilian botanist Frederico Carlos Hoehne (1882-1959) after a field trip made in 1928 to the Southern states of Parana and Santa Catarina and on a later report of his (written in 1951) about reforestation and maintenance of habitats. It discusses his reflections and perspectives about the protection of nature and the “rational” use of natural resources. Hoehne was a pioneer among 20th-century Brazilian scientists in the subject of nature protection. His research and writings aided in the emergence of an early streak of environmental awareness in Brazil, in the 1930s and 1940s. His approach combined science and aesthetic arguments and was based on the assumption that nature should play an important role in the construction of the Brazilian national identity.