Enrichment of residual forests with woody and fruit native species in order to make restoration economically feasible for degraded forest fragments of Eastern Amazon

• LASTROP
• Projects
• Enriquecimento de florestas residuais com espécies madeireiras e frutíferas nativas para viabilizar e...

Localization

Paragominas, PA, Brazil – 13 rural properties, where the main activity was cattle ranching, but soy and eucalyptus were also cultivated. In each farm, we chose remnants that have been managed for several years of predatory wood extraction, which resulted in degradation of forest structure and emptied the stock of high value wood species, transforming the forests into the so called “residual forests”.

Start

2011

Team

Prof. Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (LERF/ESALQ), Prof. Pedro Brancalion e Prof. Edson Vidal (LASTROP), Dr. André Nave (BioFlora), Dr. Wilson Marcelo da Silva (NBL)

Support

CNPq, FAPESP, Fundo Vale, TNC, USAID e Sindicato dos Produtores Rurais de Paragominas

Objective: Evaluate economic and ecologic feasibility of enrichment plantings using woody and fruit species as a way to restore degraded remnants in Eastern Amazon. A significant share of Paragomina’s forest cover consists of residual forests and, despite landowners being obliged to preserve these forests as Legal Reserves, they are continuously degraded due to the lack of financial incentives to protect them against disturbances, since they no longer have stocks of commercially valuable wood. Therefore, enrichment with woody and fruit species may bring back economic value to these forests and stimulate landowners to protect them, allowing secondary succession to continue and, ultimately, reaching conservation through use.

Experiment description: Enrichment plantings were tested in residual forests of open and closed canopies, using a certain set of species for each type of forest. We established plots of 200 x 200 m (4 ha), containing 1 species each, and control plots were also established (without enrichment plantings) in order to evaluate the potential impacts of plantation, maintenance and harvest. Woody species were planted using 8 x 8 m spacing and fruit species using 4 x 8 m spacing. Enrichment lanes were opened and measured 2 m width, every 8 m, in East-West orientation. In these lanes, we pruned canopies, deliberately choosing unwanted trees over the lane. So far, we established 90 experimental plots, which sum 360 ha and 1,800 km total.

Ongoing evaluations: Planting and maintenance costs, survival rate and initial growth, effect of canopy pruning on seedling establishment.

Starting date: 2011

Research team: Prof. Dr. Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (LERF/ESALQ), Prof. Dr. Pedro Brancalion and Prof. Dr. Edson Vidal (LASTROP), Dr. André Nave (BioFlora), Dr. Wilson Marcelo da Silva (NBL)

Supporters: CNPq, FAPESP, Fundo Vale, TNC, USAID and “Sindicato dos Produtores Rurais de Paragominas” (Farmers’ Syndicate of Paragominas)

Gallery