Análise de experiências com agroflorestas em três unidades de produção e vida familiares na mesorregião centro sul paranaense

Abstract

In the current predominant model of agriculture, degradation of ecosystems by highly impacting activities such as extensive livestock farming, monocultures in agriculture and forestry, is notorious. Among these negative socio-environmental impacts are the contamination of water, air and food by various molecules of pesticides; soil erosion; exhaustion of non-renewable natural resources; losses of biodiversity, among others. In Paraná state, the intense process of colonization and land occupation mainly with agricultural and livestock activities resulted in the devastation of the majority of the native forest cover, which was restricted to a few remnants and are generally fragmented and isolated from each other, triggering environmental impacts from biological and ecological nature. Given this scenario, there is the challenge of finding alternatives that reconcile agricultural production, environmental conservation and the social reproduction of family / peasant agriculture, with the permanence of families in rural areas. The proposal of agroforestry meets this aspiration, especially the biodiversity agroforestry systems that are ecologically similar to the natural succession of ecosystems, considering the great variety of agricultural and forestry species, following the concept of May and Trovatto (2008). Inserted in the Atlantic Forest Biome, in which contains the phytophysiognies Mixed Ombrophylous Forest and Seasonal Semideciduous Forest, the mesoregion south center of Paraná presents a list of native forest species with great ecological importance and potential for sustainable use in agroforestry. In this research, four agroforestry experiments are analyzed in three family life and production units (FLPUs), located in the municipalities of Laranjeiras do Sul and Rio Bonito do Iguaçu. This analysis was made based on the methodology of the Rapid Ecological Assessment, contemplating interviews with the family’s manager; forest inventory of the tree species and analysis of the information collected. It was verified that the analyzed agroforestry are fulfilling their function of environmental conservation, given the great variety of conserved native species. The two agroforests located in a single FLPUs, are being managed more intensively and have presented better results in terms of production. The other two agroforests analyzed need interventions that would increase this function of food production. However, all agroforestry showed native tree species preserved, a fact that confirms its importance for the conservation of biodiversity and recovery of forest cover.