Raia e conservação ambiental: uma análise sobre a fronteira Rio Grande do Sul/Brasil - Missiones/Argentina

Abstract

This research analyze the social-environmental relations in the border of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil with the province Missiones/Argentina, from the link between conservation units: Parque Estadual do Turvo in Derrubadas (brazilian city) and Parque Provincial Saltos del Moconá at El Soberbio (argentine city). The central hypothesis is that Conservation Units can modify the perception of the border as a simple boundary dividing the two countries. In this way, the main objective of this work is to understand if the frontier region in question is characterized as a ‘raia’, considering that ‘raias’ are geographic elements that express in the landscape similarities and cultural, social and natural continuities between continuous territories. In this way we study the conservation units of both sides of the international border, considering them a link between the territories. These parks express the continuity of nature dynamics above the border. So the two nations can be closer and improve ecological and economic integrations actions for the conservation of natural resources, the use of tourism potential by Brazilians and Argentines, and joint strategies for environmental education. In this work, we follow the methodological processes: analysis of the Environmental Management Plans of both Conservation Units; the legislation of the National System of Conservation Units, in the Brazilian case, and analysis the Law on Minimum Budgets for the Environmental Protection of Native Forests and the General Environmental Law in Argentine; bibliographical survey on the structuring geographic concepts of the work as: ‘raia’, frontier, landscape, territory and environmental conservation; expeditions and technical visits to the park’s headquarters, which enabled us to deepen our knowledge about the landscape similarities that can be much closer than separating Brazil from Argentina in this segment of the border. It is concluded after this research, that the Rio Grande do Sul / Brazil - Missiones / Argentina border is in fact a ‘raia’, having as a link the conservation units. At the end of the work we formulate some proposals and possibilities that aim to reinforce international relations in the ‘raia’.