Homem e natureza no Amazonas : das trajetórias de políticas ambientais à criação da primeira secretaria de defesa do meio ambiente - Sedema (1850-1990)

Abstract

The man-nature relationship in Amazonas permeates the analysis of the decision-making process and environmental policies throughout several periods in the history of the region, including critical moments of environmental impacts in the provincial period resulting from years of extractive exploration, until the creation, already in the republican period, of the first Secretariat for the Defense of the Environment-SEDEMA in the capital of Amazonas, as a mark of resistance to the predatory vocation that was naturalized in the exploitation of natural resources. The first administration of that department revealed struggles of a pioneering confrontation in a city where practically everything was permitted and which from then on would have to deal with the uncompromising defense of environmental laws in the form of SEDEMA, which was far from being just an institution, but, made by many hands, it represented the struggle experience of individuals motivated by awareness of environmental preservation and the democratization of natural heritage, in the fight between those who insisted on anthropocentric misconceptions. Born in the conflict between complex opponents, environmental history, here as a line of approach, sought to contribute to the enrichment of more complete analyzes recognizing society in nature.