Diagnóstico de áreas degradadas em assentamentos rurais em Sergipe, Brasil

Abstract

Forestry resources are widely used in many regions of the world, especially by low-income populations living in rural areas. Within this context, rural settlements stand out due to their occupation process. In this way, the objective of this study was to diagnose degraded areas in rural settlements located in the Municipalities of Poço Redondo and Porto da Folha / SE. The study was carried out in two settlements: Fazenda Cajueiro (FC) and Fazenda Nossa Senhora do Carmo (FNSC), and tools of Participatory Rural Diagnosis (DRP) and Remote Sensing were applied. The DRP tools were: transversal walk, Venn diagram, problem tree and semi-structured interviews. In the walk the rural settlements were traveled, together, with well-known settlers of all area that served as informants. In the transversal walk, it was possible to carry out the survey of information related to the environmental and socioeconomic aspects. In the Venn diagram, meetings were held with the settlers, in order to identify the relationships between the settlement and the various agencies and institutions. The problem tree tool was developed in each settlement, identifying the main environmental problems, their causes and possible solutions. The interviews were based on the Snowball methodology, composed of 24 questions about the socioeconomic profile of the interviewees, the relationships they maintain with the environment and the forest resources of the settlements. The maps of land use and occupation and vegetation dynamics of the Settlements were also elaborated from LANDSAT 7 (2002) and 8 (2015) satellite images, NDVI and the map of environmental degradation. In general, it was verified that the FC settlement has a higher demographic density than the FNSC and, therefore, the degradation factors are more present and intense than in the FNSC. It was observed, with the aid of the tools used, mainly the transversal walk and the semi-structured interviews, that the removal of the vegetal cover and the agricultural practices are the main causes of the degradation in the settlements, proven by the land use and occupation maps. The dynamics of land use and occupation showed that the Fazenda Cajueiro and Fazenda Nossa Senhora do Carmo settlements underwent anthropogenic processes that led to a change in soil cover. In general, in the Fazenda Cajueiro settlement, the occurrence of degraded areas was more intense than in Fazenda Nossa Senhora do Carmo settlement. According to the degradation map, in 2015, 1225.62 ha (43.10%) of the community areas had some degree of degradation, and in the FNSC, the degradation occurred in 75.51 ha (29.17%) of the area. These results are worrying and require decision making for the protection of remnants of native vegetation in the region, such as greater supervision by the competent agencies and extension actions that can support local communities, including environmental awareness actions.