O resineiro autônomo no litoral médio do Rio Grande do Sul: aspectos sociais, técnicos e produtivos

Abstract

This work presents a study about the gum resin production and the social, technical, and productive aspects of the autonomous tapper workers the Middle Coast of Rio Grande do Sul. Through this, we sought to emphasize the importance of documentary information, being considered as one of the first steps towards understanding in the context of resin activity. For the development of the research, a semi-structured interview questionnaire with 40 questions was elaborated, which were applied individually to each autonomous resin maker. The interviews were applied to 91 resin workers in their workplaces between June 2018 and June 2019, in the municipalities of São Jose do Norte and Tavares, RS. According to the results found within the research, it was noticed that the extraction of gum resin from Pinus elliottii Engelm.it is considered by the residents of the two municipalities as one of their main economic sources. This activity can integrate with the traditional activities that have been developed since years ago, allowing them not to be dependent only on a source of income. The resin producers in the two municipalities handle around 2.8 million trees, of which production is between 2.7 to 3.1 kg.tree-1, totaling 8,077 tons of resin. This corresponds to approximately 17% of the state's official production and generates 377 direct jobs. Also, it was identified that this whole context occurs under forests that emerged (95%) from the natural regeneration of the species, that is, they were not planted and the vast majority (97%) do not have environmental license.