Atividade florestal no contexto da fumicultura: oportunidade de desenvolvimento regional, diversificação, geração de emprego e renda

Abstract

The general objective of this paper is to demonstrate that forests and forestry activities are compatible with the real estate structure of small rural holdings, turning into a relevant subsistence factor, while providing for new opportunities of extra income for rural families, besides constituting a development hub of the region in question. The study was conducted in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, in an area where the leading economy is tobacco farming, comprising 13 municipalities that compose the operational area of the Management Committee of the Rio Pardo Hydrographic Basin. The population in the area under study reaches 328,677 people, representing 3.1% of the population of the State, split into 67.0% in the rural zone and 32.9% in the rural area, showing a variation in the different municipalities. In accordance with Koeppen s classification the climate of the region is denominated Cfa, Subtropical Humid, with warm summers and cold winters. Throughout the region, there are 21,700 tobacco growing families, and 42.9% of them do not own the land where they grow the crop. For data collection, a forestry inventory was conducted on the holdings of the farmers, complemented by interviews with farmers and 63 of the 75 sawmill owners in the region. The survey of the producers was done along with the forest inventory, and the allocation of samples was performed through the sampling process, with probabilities proportional to the forest area of the sample, and the PRODAN method was used in the sampling of the forest inventory. From the study it was concluded that the region is characterized by small-scale farmers, and 61.4% of the wood used for curing their tobacco come from outside the region, and the same goes for the timber that supplies the 75 sawmills. With regard to public policies, the majority of the farmers do not know the PopFlora, and only 30.3% know about the PRONAF FLORESTAL, and 47.4% of all reforestations are done with their own resources. Regarding technical assistance, 77.8% of the producers plant their forests without receiving any directives or technical assistance, characterizing a gap in the public polices geared towards stimulating forest activities within the family farmers context. The collected data ascertain that the region could hold projects big enough to supply the idle capacity of the sawmills, replace the supply from other regions, maintain a sawmill for pallet processing and a medium size company for making plates, which would require investments for the generation of 3,622 jobs, whilst involving resources of R$ 33,500,000.00 a year. In the meantime, values needed for investing in self-sufficiency in wood for the tobacco farming needs would reach R$ 12,250,000.00 which could be allocated on an annual basis during seven years of simple wood chopping, throughout the 13 municipalities of the region, resulting into an area of 80 ha/year/municipality. Finally, it was concluded that this regional development model is sustainable and fundamental, as it does not occur in area concentration or in income concentration areas, it fills all kinds of needs, from industrial processes to domestic demands, which induces new concepts related to non-wood products and forest environmental services.