Abstract
Land degradation is becoming a serious concern for the sustainability of traditional agrosilvopastoral systems such as the Brazilian faxinal. The IAP (Environmental Institute of the Federal State of Paraná) is favoring the partial exclusion to grazing for 10 years as strategy both to recover degraded lands and to reduce negative effects. Nevertheless, this strategy is being followed by a reduced number of owners (faxinalenses) and little is known about the effectiveness of these measures due to either lack of field data and knowledge on faxinalenses’ perceptions. We have identified one out of few farms that have followed this official strategy and, within the same farm, we have compared values of some soil properties (bulk density, porosity, water holding capacity, penetration resistance, soil organic matter and root density) from an excluded area to grazing for 10 years, with some areas that represent a gradient of grazing intensity (natural forest, secondary forest, degraded forest, grassland and a degraded area by pigs). In addition, we have interviewed some faxinalenses (one faxinal farm is owned by several farmers) in order to better understand how the risk of land degradation is perceived by them and their opinions about the usefulness of partial grazing exclusion as a strategy to improve the management of their farms. The results have shown that soil quality increases considerably as a consequence of grazing exclusion, in spite of land has been used for cropping yerba mate during the exclusion time, but faxinalenses are not mindful of these benefits and they are no longer interested in excluding other areas of their farms. They think this strategy is simply an obligation imposed by the environmental authority.
Highlights
The faxinal is a traditional agrosilvopastoral system performed in some areas of the State of Paraná (Southern Brazil) based on the sharing of communal lands by private owners known as faxinalenses within a context of subsistence farming, i.e., involving family members as main labor force [1]
The highest values (>4 MPa) of soil penetration resistance were recorded both in the degraded area and in the grassland, i.e., in those parts of the farms in which animals graze for more time (Figure 3)
Penetration resistance is an excellent indicator of soil quality, since it is highly influenced by the root density, among other parameters [6]; the absence or scarcity of roots leads to problems of soil compaction and a reduction in soil fertility
Summary
The faxinal is a traditional agrosilvopastoral system performed in some areas of the State of Paraná (Southern Brazil) based on the sharing of communal lands by private owners (under strict rules agreed by them) known as faxinalenses within a context of subsistence farming, i.e., involving family members as main labor force [1]. It is a consequence of the progressive clearing of native Araucaria angustifolia forests since the European colonization (Spanish and Portuguese until the 18th century, and mostly Ukrainian and Polish in the 19th and 20th centuries) by low-impact (extensive) grazing and wood extraction [2]. Some problems have already been detected both in faxinals and comparable land systems: soil compaction [6], changes in soil properties [7], reduction in vegetation cover [8], lack of tree regeneration [5], soil erosion [9], decrease in water infiltration [10], water pollution [11] and silting of water bodies [12], among others
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