Histórico das mudanças nas classes de uso e cobertura do solo nas fazendas da Eucatex no estado de São Paulo

Abstract

The consumption of forest-based products has increased in recent decades and forestry has been considered a strategic segment to collaborate and encourage the increase in the production of wood products. Until 2019, forest plantations represented about 9.8 million hectares in Brazil. The first land use and land cover classification system with remote sensing data aimed to identify the different categories of land classes. Land cover changes can be related to conversions, which are the complete replacement of one type of cover with another. The objective of this work was to measure the conversion of areas in forest management farms planted with Eucalyptus sp. of Eucatex Florestal, which are the scope of forest certification (FSC-FM), following the natural forest in an interval of up to 27 years (1994 – 2021). The study areas correspond to 51 Eucatex Florestal farms in the regions of Botucatu, Sorocaba and Bauru, in the state of São Paulo, distributed in 18 municipalities. In this study, Eucalyptus is not planted in conjunction with natural forest, but at the stands for commercial purposes, and areas with native species are separated by setbacks or trails. Imagery from satellite Landsat 5, 7, and 8 was used, depending on availability for the requested date. The images were downloaded from the Earth Explorer website and the maximum likelihood method was applied. Of the 51 farms analyzed, 43 had an increase in their natural forest areas and only eight had some type of vegetation loss. The Morrinhos Radar farm showed the greatest increase in the “natural forest” class since 1994, totaling 455.13 ha converted. The Santa Filomena farm had the greatest area loss, with 39.82 ha of its natural forest areas lost, and the other seven farms lost less than 10 ha. There was a increase in the natural forest cover spontaneously, without the application of forest restoration techniques, only with the isolation of the areas. The farms lost more area of natural forest before being acquired by the company, whereas after the implantation of the Eucalyptus stands, there was an increase in the natural areas. The culture of Eucalyptus sp. did not interfere with the regeneration of natural forest areas.