This paper analyzes the environmental changes in the Middle Jequitinhonha between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries beginnings, through the reading of the memoirialists and voyagers reports. The major environmental degradating actions that take place in the region are indicated and its impacts over the caatingas and forests are evaluated. It concludes: a) an expressive increase in the velocity of the regional landscapes change in the first half of twentieth century; b) and this change annealed the tendency of cattle's predominance in Middle Jequitinhonha economy.
Middle Jequitinhonha; environmental changes; memoirialists and voyagers reports
