Environmental memories and tourism in the south of Minas Gerais: contributions to the management of rural territories

Abstract

The material and immaterial heritage preservation, associated with the careful use of natural resources, requires commitment and participation of all the community sectors. Specifically, one of the great challenges of environmental management is to work together with nature in a responsible way, in order to contribute to the development of rural territories, and, at the same time, meet the wishes of local residents and visitors. This article aims to analyze how the rescue of memories associated with the environment and tourism can launch clues and assist in the conduct of the work of managers linked to the development and conservation of rural territories, in a municipality in the south of Minas Gerais, Brazil. To know the socio-environmental, cultural, and historical attributes inherent to the analyzed case, a bibliographic research was carried out in the years 2019-2021, as well as access to personal files and semi-structured interviews with local residents and subjects directly related to the investigated theme, with a pre-established script of questions based on the thematic blocks: environment, sustainable tourism, and oral histories about the rural area of ​​the municipality. Results showed that environmental management must consider possible conflicts with particular interests, overcoming them based on solid governance agendas linked to public interests.