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Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil

BACKGROUND: The Araucaria Forest is associated with the Atlantic Forest domain and is a typical ecosystem of southern Brazil. The expansion of Araucaria angustifolia had a human influence in southern Brazil, where historically hunter-gatherer communities used the pinhão, araucaria’s seed, as a food...

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Autores principales: Machado Mello, Anna Jacinta, Peroni, Nivaldo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4489030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26054395
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-015-0039-x
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author Machado Mello, Anna Jacinta
Peroni, Nivaldo
author_facet Machado Mello, Anna Jacinta
Peroni, Nivaldo
author_sort Machado Mello, Anna Jacinta
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The Araucaria Forest is associated with the Atlantic Forest domain and is a typical ecosystem of southern Brazil. The expansion of Araucaria angustifolia had a human influence in southern Brazil, where historically hunter-gatherer communities used the pinhão, araucaria’s seed, as a food source. In the north of the state of Santa Catarina, the Araucaria Forest is a mosaic composed of cultivation and pasture inserted between forest fragments, where pinhão and erva-mate are gathered; some local communities denominate these forest ecotopes as caívas. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand how human populations transform, manage and conserve landscapes using the case study of caívas from the Araucaria Forests of southern Brazil, as well as to evaluate the local ecological knowledge and how these contribute to conservation of the Araucaria Forest. METHODS: This study was conducted in the northern plateau of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil in local five communities. To assess ethnoecological perceptions the historical use and management of caívas, semi-structured interviews, checklist interviews and guided tours were conducted with family units. RESULTS: In total 28 family units participated in the study that had caívas on their properties. During the course of the study two main perceptions of the ecotope caíva were found, there is no consensus to the exact definition; perception of caívas is considered a gradient. In general caívas are considered to have the presence of cattle feeding on native pasture, with denser forest area that is managed, and the presence of specific species. Eleven management practices within caívas were found, firewood collection, cattle grazing, trimming of the herbaceous layer, and erva-mate extraction were the most common. Caívas are perceived and defined through the management practices and native plant resources. All participants stated that there have been many changes to the management practices within caívas and to the caíva itself. CONCLUSIONS: These areas still remain today due to cultural tradition, use and management of plant resources. Through this cultural tradition of maintaining caívas the vegetation of the Araucaria Forest has been conserved associated to the use of the Araucaria Forests native plant resources.
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spelling pubmed-44890302015-07-03 Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil Machado Mello, Anna Jacinta Peroni, Nivaldo J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research BACKGROUND: The Araucaria Forest is associated with the Atlantic Forest domain and is a typical ecosystem of southern Brazil. The expansion of Araucaria angustifolia had a human influence in southern Brazil, where historically hunter-gatherer communities used the pinhão, araucaria’s seed, as a food source. In the north of the state of Santa Catarina, the Araucaria Forest is a mosaic composed of cultivation and pasture inserted between forest fragments, where pinhão and erva-mate are gathered; some local communities denominate these forest ecotopes as caívas. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand how human populations transform, manage and conserve landscapes using the case study of caívas from the Araucaria Forests of southern Brazil, as well as to evaluate the local ecological knowledge and how these contribute to conservation of the Araucaria Forest. METHODS: This study was conducted in the northern plateau of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil in local five communities. To assess ethnoecological perceptions the historical use and management of caívas, semi-structured interviews, checklist interviews and guided tours were conducted with family units. RESULTS: In total 28 family units participated in the study that had caívas on their properties. During the course of the study two main perceptions of the ecotope caíva were found, there is no consensus to the exact definition; perception of caívas is considered a gradient. In general caívas are considered to have the presence of cattle feeding on native pasture, with denser forest area that is managed, and the presence of specific species. Eleven management practices within caívas were found, firewood collection, cattle grazing, trimming of the herbaceous layer, and erva-mate extraction were the most common. Caívas are perceived and defined through the management practices and native plant resources. All participants stated that there have been many changes to the management practices within caívas and to the caíva itself. CONCLUSIONS: These areas still remain today due to cultural tradition, use and management of plant resources. Through this cultural tradition of maintaining caívas the vegetation of the Araucaria Forest has been conserved associated to the use of the Araucaria Forests native plant resources. BioMed Central 2015-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4489030/ /pubmed/26054395 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-015-0039-x Text en © Machado Mello and Peroni. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Machado Mello, Anna Jacinta
Peroni, Nivaldo
Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil
title Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil
title_full Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil
title_fullStr Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil
title_full_unstemmed Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil
title_short Cultural landscapes of the Araucaria Forests in the northern plateau of Santa Catarina, Brazil
title_sort cultural landscapes of the araucaria forests in the northern plateau of santa catarina, brazil
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4489030/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26054395
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-015-0039-x
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