Conocimiento etnoagrícola al borde de la desaparición: el caso de una comunidad de la Mata Atlántica brasileña

Abstract

This paper aims to survey ethnoagricultural knowledge by a community living in an area of Atlantic tropical rainforest in Brazil. Interviews were conducted to 20 persons who are still related to the use of plants. All of them had cultivated roças in the past, activity they reported to have abandoned due to changes in environmental law, tourism activities and lack of land for planting. There is still a rich ethnoagricultural memory based on the traditional practices of cultivation of plants, management of the land, and the observation of nature. However, this knowledge is rapidly disappearing albeit its high socioenvironmental value and its recognized tangible and intangible biocultural heritage.

Farmer’s Perception about Agroforestry Systems for Legal Reserves in the Region of São Mateus, Espírito Santo, Brazil

“…In the studied community, agricultural crops are grown both in backyards and in landscape units known as roças, the latter being predominant in the region. As reported by Quinteiro et al (2016), small producers who use plantations and backyards usually have subsistence as their objective, that is, production is for family consumption. According to the interviewees, the main purpose of having agricultural plantations is for own consumption, and in some cases, when there is surplus in the production, for commercialization.…”