Cerrado, Nature, and Environment in the magazine A Informacao Goyana (1917-1935)

This article deals with nature and the environment in the Cerrado based on research in articles published in A Informacao Goyana, a magazine that circulated between 1917 and 1935. We present the documentary analysis in three dimensions: the first is Cerrado's Flora - sometimes treated with the eyes of 19th-century travelers, seen as exuberant and wonderful, seldom with a more practical and utilitarian look towards the plant as food and for its medicinal use. The second dimension deals with environmental issues in an interface that polarizes environmental issues with economic development. On the one hand, the need for agricultural exploration, that is, an economic concern, on the other, the defense of a Forest Code with a view to environmental preservation, a debate that is still very contemporary. And third, the magazine's view about the rivers, which, besides being extolled as natural beauty, was seen as a strategic solution for the integration of the central region with the country's coast. The analysis shows that this magazine, in addition to its historical importance, constitutes a primary source for the knowledge of nature and traditional knowledge significant to the people's health of Central Brazil.