Áreas de preservação permanente em topo da Chapada e sua adequação à legislação federal

Abstract

The research was applied at Alto Rio Uberabinha watershed, in the cities of Uberlândia and Uberaba, located in the western region of Minas Gerais. The objective was to map the main economic activities carried out in Uberabinha river basin, which are based on natural resources exploitation - land and water - and that result in potentially negative impacts to wetlands situated on the plateau. Additionally, was checking how the Permanent Preservation Areas has been treated along the recent years linking land use conversion with the changes in the Brazilian environmental codes requirements on 1934, 1965, 1989 and 2012. Were conducted a normative ordering protection analysis of Permanent Preservation Areas highlighted by the Federal Law 12,651 of 2012, the land use and mining activity maps, and consumption and grant waters, establishing possible scenarios to protect wetlands on plateau. The main results indicate that the Cerrado has been converted, through the last forty years, in agriculture areas to corn and soybeans monocultures and reforestation. Areas of natural vegetation cover were greatly reduced. At lateritic soils areas, well drained, native vegetation practically does not exist, when it is compared to the monocultures dimensions. The land use map was prepared by using higher spatial resolution images and visual interpretation, confirmed the pressure by agriculture on wetlands and supported a closer analysis on the actual size and dynamics of these areas. The mining prospects indicate that in the coming decades there will be a greater interest in explore new areas, which are already in process by DNPM. Water rights and grants maps indicated the importance that springs have to attend demand, especially in the city of Uberlândia. It was noted the difficulty imposed on natural flora conservation according the new Brazilian Forest Code wording to ensure that more Permanent Preservation Areas are not reduced or destroyed as from 2012. On the plateau surface area, they present a great uniqueness therefore in the new Forest Code text it could define the Permanent Preservation Areas through several different categories. The Forest Code law text does not capture the natural area complexity called wetland in this research, because it consists of several categories into a single space, regarding to a mosaic, which brings confusion, mostly for law applicators when defining what would be the protection range to be preserved. We attempted to show that the good that needs to be protected is the natural dynamics of elements complex that ensure the maintenance of water flow, which has such great importance for the population.