Paranapiacaba: a sustainable cultural landscape case

Abstract

This work presents the Management of Local Sustainable Development of Paranapiacaba implemented by the Municipality of Santo André between 2001 and 2008. In 2001 was created a Local Government, the Paranapiacaba and Andreense Park borough, and in 2002 the Municipality purchased the Village. Since then, there have been investments in managing local sustainable development that seeks, by preserving the cultural landscape, management of natural resources, to transform the village into a tourist destination. In the highlands of Serra do Mar, the municipality of Santo André preserves a most expressive cultural and natural heritage of the Brazilian territory: Paranapiacaba, an indigenous term meaning a “place to watch the sea”. Located 48km away from the capital, the Village was founded and developed in 1860, as the first railroad was built in the state by the British Company, São Paulo Railway. In 1946, as the 90-year concession to SPR ended, the railroad and all of its heritage were incorporated to the Federal Government by means of the Santosto-Jundiaí Railroad Company, which was short-lived and, in 1957, was encompassed by the Federal Railroad Mesh. Paranapiacaba had its natural, historic, technological, urbanistic, and architectural heritage recognized in 1987 as per listing of the CONDEPHAAT (Historic, Artistic, Archaeological, and Touristic Heritage Defense Council of the State of São Paulo), in 2002 by the IPHAN (National Historicand Artistic Heritage Institute), and in 2003 at the municipal level by the COMDEPHAAPASA. In 1994, the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization, UNESCO, recognizes the importance of local Atlantic Forest biodiversity and ecosystems by creating a Biosphere Reservation of the São Paulo Green Belt (RBCV), thus contributing to the development of an extensive ecological corridor for the purposes of environmental conservation and sustainability. In 2008, Paranapiacaba was on the verge of becoming a World Heritage to Mankind. Brazil currently has 17 assets thus recognized by UNESCO and Paranapiacaba will be the first industrial railway heritage to join the Brazilian list.