Instrumentalization of the concept of nature: from the preservation of the natural heritage to the market usage of the Serra da Cantareira

Author(s)

Vitória Eichenberger

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Geociências
• Defense date: 2024-12-09

Examining board members

Maria Tereza Duarte Paes; Sidnei Raimundo; Wendel Henrique Baumgartner

• Advisor: Maria Tereza Duarte Paes

Abstract

This dissertation is based on the hypothesis that, given the extreme poles of meaning linked to the concept of nature – from its idealization to its instrumental rationalization – the meanings intended for any use are mobilized by different actors and through different intentionalities. Based on this diversity of meanings, the aim was to identify conceptions of nature mobilized for preservation and market uses of these areas, as well as the spatial and territorial consequences generated by it. The analysis focuses on the natural heritage policies adopted by the Council for the Defense of the Historical, Artistic and Tourist Heritage of the State of São Paulo (Condephaat), using the listed area of the Cantareira State Reserve and Horto Florestal (Process No. 20536/78) as the spatial focus for the proposed analysis, with the main objectives of identifying institutional actions and conceptual proposals for the heritagization of nature in the state of São Paulo, as well as analyzing the socio-spatial pressures and contradictions inherent in this protected area, mainly through segregated and self-segregated areas. Regarding natural heritage policies, it was found that, while on the one hand, the policy adopted by the Council throughout the 1980s represented conceptual advances and significant listings, on the other hand, from the mid-1990s onwards, the policy went through a process of deregulation to the point of adjusting heritage according to economic and political interests. Nonetheless, the case study addressed exemplifies this more general context, in which, through documentary analysis and interviews, these aforementioned attitudes were verified in different periods, from the listing process, through the new processes of requests and interventions, up to those of archiving. As for marketing uses, specifically the discourses, imagery and desires present in advertisements for condominiums and gated allotments in the region were analyzed, associating their developments with ideas of nature as a place of refuge, with quality of life and "fresh air", and far from the chaos of the cities. In this case, they feed and influence both the psychosphere and the technosphere in a way directed to specific populations, which in turn segregate and are hostile to distinct groups, even though living very close to them. Still in its infancy, having begun in 2022, the concession for public use of the Cantareira State Park utilizes similar ideas, and claims benefits that have not yet been fully put into practice, and which tend to reproduce socio-spatial and environmental contradictions within the protected area (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 21/03664-3 - Natural Heritage and Landscape: the critical areas of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo
• Grantee: Vitória Eichenberger
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master