Patrimônio Histórico Ambiental: diagnósticos para criação de unidade de conservação e orientações para o uso público do Jardim Botânico de Ouro Preto-MG/Heritage Environmental History: diagnostics for creating conservation unit and guidelines for the public use of the Botanical Garden of Ouro Preto-MG/Patrimonio Historia Ambiental: diagnóstico para la creación de la unidad de conservación y las directrices para el uso público del Jardín Botánico de Ouro Preto-MG

In the late eighteenth century, in the old Vila Rica (MG), it was defined space, which in 1840 began to house a practical teaching agriculture school, becoming the Botanical Gardens Ouro Preto-MG. Currently the site is being pleading for the creation of a Conservation Unit (CU) State. This study was conducted as part of studies to assess the possibility of creating a new UC in this area in line with the Federal Law no. 9985 of 18/07/2000. Therefore, the following steps were taken: a literature review; secondary and primary data surveys from five site visits, held in November 2014; analysis of 40 interviews conducted with institutional representatives, residents and formal and informal community leaders, Ouro Preto. As a result we obtained a preliminary analysis of the impacts and opportunities in the creation of UC and pointing suggestions for the establishment of it. The study also proposed some guidelines for the management of UC through the development of community-based tourist attractions, which have historical reference elements, cultural and eco-tourism, promoting the preservation of the environment and the rescue of cultural memory and regional identity.