A gestão ambiental municipal em Uberlândia e os desafios do ambientalismo

Abstract

The goal of this study is to present a panorama of the environmental management elaborated in Uberlândia by the Municipal Secretary for the Environment from its implantation up to the government, finished in 2004. Our analysis begins with the context of the situation from theoretical and historical points of view, based on the reality of Brazil. It is argued that environmentalism has been considered a constituent aspect in the planning of the growing city as well as an influence in the local political-administrative process since the beginning of the 1990 s. Information is presented regarding the management of the environment in various cities of Brazil and specifically in Uberlândia an important middle size city and a regional growth pole. During the last forty years the city has experienced accelerated urbanization characterized by the speculative logic of real estate interests, fragility in the territorial and environmental planning and the existence of anti-symmetrical development that has continuously aggravated social inequalities as well as the environmental and social impact. Experiences of municipal environmental management are still rare in Brazil. They are generally not well structured and are very vulnerable to administrative rupture and political contingencies. In Uberlândia, however, two decades after the implantation of the Secretary of the Environment, it can be concluded that this office has provided advances in environmental management, in the use and occupation of urban soil, in the control of sources of pollution, in the establishment of land conservation, in waste management, in environmental sanitation, in democratic participation and environmental education. In spite of long periods of political retrocession the results have been affirmative and serve as a model for other municipal regions throughout our country.