Análise da Categoria de Manejo Área de Proteção Ambiental e uma proposta de Índice para Avaliação do Grau de Estabelecimento de seus Sítios Protegidos

Abstract

The "Environmental Protection Area" (APA) is a management category of the "Nature Conservation Unit" (UC) belonging to the Sustainable Use group of the National System of Nature Conservation Units (SNUC). Its protected sites have as their main objective to protect the environment, to discipline the process of human occupation and to ensure sustainable use and access to natural resources within their cartographic limits. As for their general characteristics, APA's, generally are very extensive and endowed with natural, aesthetic and cultural attributes important for quality of life and human well-being. In them, maybe include public and private property, as well as controlled human occupation and the sustainable direct use of natural resources. In 2019, the APA is the third management category at the number of sites (No. 355) and the largest in extension in the country, with approximately 50% of SNUC's protected coverage. However, there are reports of problems involving APA's, especially regarding the efficiency management and effectiveness of your environmental protection. In part, this scenario supports the criticism of those who believe that APA's should be excluded from SNUC. In this thesis, the main question is: Are APAs established, ie do they really exist? Is the current form of management performed on their sites are efficient? Do APAs effectively protect the environment or not? In this context, is the exclusion of APA from SNUC are relevant? It is hypothesized that APA is a management category with has challenges, pressures, and threats to the creation, implementation and management of your sites, which undermines the efficiency of your management. Thus, it is argued in this thesis that the problems that affect the efficiency management on APA and their effectiveness in environmental protection are not related to the management category, but to the establishment of their sites. The general purpose of this thesis was to evaluate APA's management category and investigate whether its sites are efficiently managed and whether or not they effectively protect the environment. The methodological procedures involved the hypothetical-deductive method and its procedures: (i) literature review and documentary research; (ii) exploratory research, with data from the "Cadastro Nacional de Unidades de Conservação" (CNUC); and (iii) qualitative research, with key actors and pilot studies to develop and validate an Index for Evaluation of the Degree of Establishment of their Protected Sites (AGEAPA). Exploratory research has shown that APAs, at the federal level and in Minas Gerais state, generally have medium to low-efficiency management and effectiveness of environmental protection, with high cases. Low-average values are related to problems in their management cycle that mainly undermine overall efficiency management, site establishment, and outcomes, and outputs. It wasn t possible to properly assess the establishment of the management category and on its sites, as CNUC lacked sufficient, reliable and available information. AGEAPA was robust and adequate for providing systematic information on the establishment of APAs, which can support the preparation of Operational, Work and Action Plans.