Manejo de pastagem com o uso do fogo em unidade de conservação de uso sustentável no cerrado: estudo comparativo entre a RDS Veredas do Acari (MG) e a APA Nascentes do Rio Vermelho (GO)

Abstract

The aim of this work was to analyse the rational bedrock of small farmers as fire users to handle grazing lands in the Brazilian savannah, named as Cerrado, as opposed to the expression of rational behavior that lies at the core of environmental institutions, opposing each one of them to the scientific knowledge available about the general functioning of the biome. The intention was to check the scientific conformity between these two opposite positions on the basis of a comparative study involving two protected areas typified as of sustainable use. Thus, the matter here presented stood on the intersection of three main concepts: traditionality, institutionality and scientific evidence, analysing and evaluating their similarities and divergences in two protected areas for sustainable use, the first located in the northeast of the State of Goias (APA Nascentes do Rio Vermelho) and the second in the northern of Minas Gerais State (RDS Veredas do Acari). The theoretical approach used was based on Weber's notion of rationality and on the assumptions of political ecology as an instrument to approach social-environmental conflicts between conservation and production sectors, involving the use of natural resources. The methodology was based on literature and documental research, on questionnaires and on semi-structured interviews, as well as on data extracted from satellite images. The results indicate that the use of fire as a pasture management tool may impact the Cerrado environment. However, this traditional practice has been criminalized beforehand, without confronting it to recent data and scientific studies on fire ecology, social-historical aspects and the possibility of merging it to alternative technologies. The outcomes due to such beforehand criminalization may cause unnecessary cost increase to the small cattle raising activity with negative social-economic impact in the short run.