Eucalyptus and Atlantic Forest: analysis of land use and land cover and their environmental, political, and socioeconomic connections

Author(s)

Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2015-09-18

Examining board members

Mateus Batistella; Simone Aparecida Vieira; Roberto Luiz do Carmo; Diogenes Salas Alves; Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud Ometto

• Advisor: Emilio F Moran; Mateus Batistella

Abstract

The Paraíba Valley is a region of economic importance to the state of São Paulo. With a population of more than two million inhabitants concentrated in urban areas (95%), especially in the municipalities located along the Presidente Dutra highway, it was elevated to a metropolitan region in 2012. Connecting São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the Paraíba Valley was one of the first Brazilian regions that faced profound changes in its landscapes, as a result of centuries of colonization. Within the Atlantic Forest biome, the region had about 225 thousand hectares of native forest in 1962, about 16% of its territorial extension. Profound changes in the Brazilian economy, especially after the 1950s, with the National Target Plan, the industry's decentralization process in São Paulo and the national project of agricultural modernization (since the 1960s), brought to the Paraíba Valley a new context, determinant to future land use and land cover trajectories. The objective of this research was to understand the socioeconomic and biophysical connections of the Paraíba Valley with the forest transition process. The research methodology included the mapping of land use and land cover (years 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2011) on Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper imagery, model analysis of change using logistic regression and neural networks, structured and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and household survey in ninety farms. We observed that the forest cover in 2011 reached approximately 446 thousand hectares, a net gain of 98% since 1962. This process occurred mostly on degraded pastures (74%) and in areas with slopes greater than 20%. This research indicates a Forest Transition process influenced by the international commodity market (eucalyptus pulp), public policies for conservation, the decrease of agricultural activities, industrial economic development in the region, the society's engagement in controlling deforestation, and the situation of forest scarcity in the Atlantic Forest biome (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/13568-0 - PLANTED FORESTS AND ATLANTIC FOREST: ANALYSIS OF LAND USE AND LAND COVER AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCIOECONOMIC CONNECTIONS
• Grantee: Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate