FOREST PLANTATION CHARACTERIZATION AND MONITORING FOR RECOVERY OF DEGRADED AREAS AT THE ESPINHAÇO MOUNTAIN RANGE, MINAS GERAIS
Ecological restauration, Cerrado, Weed competition
The Cerrado Biome is of great importance for the conservation of water resources and biodiversity. Mappings show that 50% of the area of this biome is degraded (Sano, 2008).
In this context, actions and measures to recover degraded areas are essential to overcome the various environmental challenges of modernity. The "Plantando o Futuro" is a program of the state of Minas Gerais that is planting seedlings of several forest species in selected regions, aiming the recovery of degraded areas. The present work has as objective to make a monitoring and evaluation of the plantations realized in the region of Serra do Espinhaço. Therefore, the work was carried out in five areas of planting in São Gonçalo do Rio das Pedras in the municipality of Serro, MG. In the areas of planting was made the analysis of soil fertility and the description of the silvicultural characteristics of the planted species. In the evaluation of planting, survival rates and soil cover rates was analyzed in 3 plots of 10 m x 10 m chosen at random in each of the five areas. Still in the five areas was chosed at random 15 individuals of six fast growing species, who was evaluated as lap diameter, height and crown diameter every six months for two years. To evaluate different ways of maintaining the areas, a block experiment with 4 treatments was carried out. Which are a crowning and mowing treatment, a crowning, mowing and covering with straw treatment, a crowning, mowing and covering with cardboard and the control without maintenance in four of the five areas. Four measurements were taken every six months for two years and analysis of variance at 5% by Tukey test. The average survival rate at the end of the experiment was 52.9%, in the best area 85.9% and in the worst 30.5%, ground cover rates below 2.5% for all areas. Cardboard coverage was significantly higher than the other treatments in relation to the survival rate and had difference between the survival rate of the studied species.
Interviews were conducted with the owners on the ownership history and adherence to the project, most of whom approved and found the project important, and already intended to do the reforestation.