Estradas paisagísticas: estratégia de promoção e conservação do patrimônio paisagístico do Pampa Brasil - Uruguai

Abstract

The main rationale for this research is the existence of such a singular biome as the Pampa, with high levels of geological, biological, and social diversity, and insufficient conservation initiatives. In the Brazilian Rio Grande do Sul State, only 40% of native grasslands remain, while in Uruguay this level drops to 20%. Moreover, less than 1% of the vast territory of the Brazilian Pampa is under some sort of legal protection. In addition to these data, there is a huge interest of the international capital in economically exploring the area, fact that brings enormous risks to the landscape and to the people who live and depend (economically and culturally) of the Pampa. Enterprises related to forestry and mining, beyond accelerating degradation processes of the biome, preclude conservation units to be instituted in the area. In this context, this research considers that the roads cutting through the pampa could be used to (re)signify the territory as well as to build new forms of perceiving and knowing the landscape. Well-succeeded examples of such strategies are in Spain’s carreteras paisajísticas and in the USA Blue Ridge Parkway, among others. Thinking roads as a means for interpreting landscapes can be considered something new in the context of the Pampa, even though the legal figure of “parkway” is part of the Rio Grande do Sul State’s system of protected areas. The landscapes of the pampa have a huge potential for a road-based interpretation and conservation plan of this neglected region. The main goal of this research is, therefore, to identify and describe the landscape heritage of the Brazilian-Uruguayan Pampa, as seen from roads, in order to orient conservation policies, as well as to increase the divulgation and promotion of the touristic potential of this territory. Specific goals have comprised the comprehension and mapping of the landscape diversity of the Pampa, as well as the proposal of a more detailed subdivision of this ecoregion. Researching such a vast territory as the Brazilian-Uruguayan Pampa ecoregion was certainly a factor of challenge. Methodological and operational procedures have involved exploratory, qualitative research (in published bibliography and legislation), as well as field-based quantitative assessment of landscape attributes. Fieldwork has resulted in more than 6,000 km of travelled roads in both countries, 42 landscape interest points, and 4 landscape road tracks interpreted: Guaritas, Palmares, Sierra de Minas, and Mesetas. The interpretation of such road tracks through interpretive folders aims at making people (local residents and tourists/travelers) know their landscapes, because, as taught by Tilden (1957, p. 38): “through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection”.