GEO Brasil - UNEP

policies feedback
fragmentation of the territory by creating some developed
centersand by leaving other territories completely without
resources. When considering the issue of predatory
exploration of natural resources, it can be said time and
again that the integration policy leads to a “disintegration”
of territories, thus producing spaces which can not be
productive without some expensive recovery.
Despite all ecological culture, created in the last 30 years,
the environment continues to be treated as a sectorial and
fragmented theme. It is worth mentioning that this happens
not only in Brazil but all over the continent. There are
Environment Ministries all over Latin America. Within each
of these there are sectors fully dedicated to water, where
Water Councils have been created. However, no concern
has been shown to make them compatible with the several
different uses of the soil, their agents, future demands and
projects. Therefore, it can not be said that there is an
integrated treatment among water, forests, biodiversity or
the adequate use of such resources for the development of
society and the country.
impacts of natural phenomena and of human activities on
the environment require a new definition referential. This is
also true for the environment’s impact on human life
conditions.
The concept of new territorial management instruments is
closely and insolubly linked to the development of society.
It embraces the task of ensuring equity of access to natural,
economic and cultural resources which may be transformed
into opportunities for sustainable development provided
1.3 In the Counter-current of Segmentation:
the Bias and the Challenge
The technological evolution enabled by instruments which
use satellite images and the geo-coded treatment of
information related to natural and social-economic resources
opens means to set up databases that are adequate to the
identification, characterisation and assessment of urban
and rural environmental systems. This type of assessment
corresponds to a process which, undergoing a previous
diagnosis phase, enables the identification of capacity to
maintain, extend or recover the appropriate its of the
systems..
Statistical treatment given to several uses of soil seems to
float in an abstract space deprived of mass and natural
resources which still characterise the regions of this planet.
This is due to prevailing aspects such as economic and, in
some cases, social factors, and to sectorial analysis. The
cumulative deterioration of this type of resources results,
in most cases, from negative impacts which in turn result
from questionable bases of effective functioning of the
economic systems. This seems to indicate the urgent need
of a multidisciplinary effort to tackle the problem. A new
conceptual framework is necessary and should be oriented
towards the formulation of human-environmental
information system which, in turn, benefits the interrelations
between social-economic processes and the
environment. This should be aimed at desired sustainability
of the development process to be implemented. The
methodological basis for an adequate assessment of the
they are used in an adequate fashion.
In turn, this sustainability notion relies on the notion of
environmental fitness (economic, social, cultural and
ecological) of the adopted means of exploration. This notion
is guaranteed, and inspected, when founded on the practice
of equity of access to those resources by society. Either
collective or individual participation of citizens will occur.
Duly warned, they shall defend their rights and those of
their children and grandchildren in order to be able to enjoy
their territorial heritage.
Significant efforts have been made throughout the last
decade in view of promoting the desired integration on a
sustainable basis. Among those which should be
highlighted are the participation of Brazil in the United
Nations Conference for the Environment - known as Rio-
92, and the development, in both social and political terms,
of Agenda 21. The institutional and technical-scientific
alliance process which supported the elaboration of the
present Report of Perspectives for the Environment in Brazil,
also called GEO – Brasil 2002, also constitutes a landmark
in this process.
224