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Balancing Natural and Agricultural Systems in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil

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Balancing Natural and Agricultural Systems in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil Institut für Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften und Ressourcenschutz der Rheinischen Friedrich- Wilhelms- Universität Bonn BALANCING NATURAL AND AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS IN THE ATLANTIC RAINFOREST OF BRAZIL Inaugural-Dissertation Zur Erlangung des Grades Doktor der Agrarwissenschaften (Dr. Agr.) der Hohen Landwirtschaftlichen Fakultät Der Rheinischen Friederich- Wilhelms- Universität Zu Bonn Vorgelegt am 06.10.2006 Von Juan Carlos TORRICO ALBINO Aus Cochabamba- Bolivien Referent: Prof. Dr. M.J.J. Janssens Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Heiner E. Goldbach Diese Dissertation ist auf dem Hochschulschriftenserver der ULB Bonn http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/diss_online elektronisch publiziert D 98 Tag der Mündlichen Prüfung: 15.12.2006 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Deseo expresar mi más profundo agradecimiento a las siguientes personas que hicieron posible la realización y culminación de este trabajo. En Primer lugar al Prof. Dr. Marc Janssens, por haber sido más que mi primer supervisor, por haberme enseñado el camino de la ciencia y a la vez impartido valiosas lecciones de vida, por haberme allanado el camino en momentos difíciles, por sus ideas visionarias y por su gran paciencia en la conducción y corrección de esta tesis. Un especial agradecimiento a su esposa Frau Janssens por su apoyo moral y por inyectar energía positiva en mi familia. Al Prof. Dr. Heiner Goldbach, mi segundo supervisor por las correcciones y el valioso aporte científico. Al Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pohlan, por sus valiosos consejos, y por ser un ejemplo de profesionalismo. Muy especialmente al Prof. Dr. Hartmut Gaese, en primer lugar por su amistad, por haber hecho posible la realización de este trabajo a través del proyecto BLUMEN , por haberme brindado su apoyo científico y humano, por los valiosos consejos, discusiones, por los gratos momentos en campo, y finalmente por apoyar a mi familia. A mis amigos y colegas de la Unidad Cultivos Tropicales de la Uni-Bonn, Sandra Callado, Silke Mailwes, Oliver Jende, Francisco Marroquim y Zhixin Deng, por compartir su amistad y haberme brindado su apoyo constante, por el debate constructivo e intercambio de ideas en numerosos y recordados seminarios. A mis amigos y colegas del proyecto BLUMEN: Dra. Sabine Schlüter (Coordinadora), Dr. Jens Wesenberg, Dr. Ditmer Sattler, Nicole Kretschmer, Ivonne Friederich, Udo Nehren, Andre Lindner, por haber compartido las experiencias de campo y haber hecho amena la estadía en Brasil, por compartir sus conocimientos y las interminables discusiones. A todos los estudiantes de Maestría y Diplom del ITT y de la Uni-Leipzig, especialmente a Lucy Mino, Diego Barreiro, Nick Zegels, por haber aportado con sus trabajos de tesis y la recolección de datos. A todos los investigadores brasileños, especialmente al Prof. Dr. Augusto Piratelli, a la Profa. Dra. Fatina Pina, a Elba dos Santos, por el apoyo incondicional desde el inicio de mi estadía en Brasil y especialmente por su amistad. A todos los estudiantes brasileños y en especial a Juvenal Martin con quien compartimos días duros en campo. Quedo agradecido a los cientos de agricultores que me permitieron investigar en sus campos, y nos apoyaron para el éxito del proyecto, especialmente a Davi, Roberto, Regiane, Carlim, Seinha, Marcinho y sus respectivas familias, a todos ellos por su amistad y apoyo desinteresado. El más grande agradecimiento a mi esposa Maria Isabel, por su infinito amor, apoyo y comprensión. i Este trabajo está dedicado a mi querida familia que son mi fuerza e inspiración: Con amor a mi madre Gertrudis, a mis hermanos Marcos y Julio y familias, a mi hijo amado Carlos Andrés, a mi esposa Isabel y a la memoria de mi padre Julio Miguel ii PREFACE The present doctoral work was carried out from April 2003 to October 2006 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marc Janssens, Unit of Tropical Crops, currently belonging to the Department of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) from the University of Bonn, Germany. The Unit of Tropical Crops participated in a German-Brazilian project "Biodiversity in Integrated Land Use Management for Economic Natural and System Stability in the Mata Atlântica of Rio de Janeiro (BLUMEN)" Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Gaese, executive director of the Institute for Technology in the Tropics (ITT) of the University of Applied Science Cologne. The project was part of the Brazilian - German co-operation programme: "Science and Technology for the Mata Atlântica" launched by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Cnpq), Brazil and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF, Germany. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Brazil and Germany started the BLUMEN project in the region of Teresópolis (State of Rio de Janeiro), focussing on the river basin of Rio Preto and the National Park Serra dos Órgãos. Researchers from 8 Institutions took part to this project: UFRRJ-Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ-Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, INT-Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia, FIOCRUZ - Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, UFSCar- Universidade Federal de São Carlos, as well as, three German recognized universities: University of Bonn, University of Leipzig and University of Applied Sciences Cologne. The realization of this project was only possible with the active participation of hundreds of farmers and local organizations, all collaborating actively in the development of this project and especially in the laborious data collection for this thesis. iii ERKLÄRUNG Ich versichere, dass ich diese arbeit selbständig verfasst habe, keine anderen Quellen und Hilfsmittel als die angegebenen benutz und die Stellen der Arbeit, die anderen Werken dem Wortlauf oder dem Sinn nach entnommen sind, kenntlich gemacht habe. Die Arbeit hat in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form keiner anderen Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegen. Bonn, den 06.10.2006 iv SUMMARY The aim of this work was to find ways of balancing natural and agricultural systems (AS) in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil. Trade-offs and synergies were analyzed. We propose six hypotheses related to; (i) the contribution of agricultural systems to biodiversity conservation, (ii) the agricultural and natural mosaic in the landscape, (iii) the agriculture as consumer and producer of energy, (iv) the eco- volume as parameter to measure ecological functions, (v) the environmental impacts, quality of inputs, and sustainability, and (vi) the measurement of resilience in natural and agricultural systems. Energy and emergy analysis, agro-biodiversity assessment, eco-volume, biomass partitioning, cost benefit analysis, surveys, and case studies were used as methodologies during 24 months of field work. The identified agricultural and natural systems were: (i) vegetables systems (leaf, fruit and mixed vegetables); (ii) citrus; (iii) ecological; (iv) cattle, (v) sylvopastoral, (vi) forest fragment and, (vii) forest in regeneration stage (1, 2 and 3 years old) Agro-climax was defined as the equilibrium point between the natural and agricultural systems. Biodiversity management and conservation activities were analyzed and the corresponding biodiversity indices calculated. Finally, the farmer perception of biodiversity was presented. Ecological and sylvopastoral systems contribute positively to the conservation of biodiversity, on the contrary, dominant cattle systems are the main cause for forest fragmentation, breaking the dynamics of animal and plant populations. The landscape is dominated by fragments, 36.2%, grasses and agriculture 33.7% and forest in regeneration 18.8%. The main primary agricultural production systems have low energy conversion ratio, and store only small quantities of energy (biomass) in the system. The ecological system has the most efficient use of energy, and saves great biomass quantity in the system. The cattle system presents the lowest values for all energy and biomass parameters causing largest environmental damage. All vegetable systems present positive economic indicators, the cattle only negative ones. The ecological system, presents highest sustainability in ecological terms. The basin as a system contributes positively to the economy. It gives more emergy than that it takes from the economic system in form of materials and services. This fact represents also a loss of capital. The environmental impact caused by the agricultural systems is moderate as their use of renewable resources is high. Hence, the ecological sustainability is moderate to good. Eco-volume is an important parameter to measure the ecological function and thequality of natural systems, as well as their interactions with agricultural systems. Reduction of eco-volume represents a negative impact on the ecosystem functionality, which in turn disrupts the supply of goods and ecological services. The eco-volume concept also plays a central role in the measurement of the resilience of natural and agricultural systems. Cattle and vegetable systems have the lowest resilience, ecological and sylvopastoral systems the greatest ones. v ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Bilanzierung zwischen Natur- und Agrarsystemen im Atlantischen Regenwald von Brasilien. Es wurden die Trade-offs und Synergien analysiert. Es werden sechs Hypothesen aufgestellt, die sich beziehen auf: (i) Beitrag des Agrarsystems zur Biodiversitätserhaltung, (ii) Agrar- und Naturmosaik in der Landschaft, (iii) die Landwirtschaft als Konsument und Produzent von Energie, (iv) das Ökovolumen als Parameter zur Messung der ökologischen Funktionen, (v) die Umwelteinflüsse, Input-Qualität und Nachhaltigkeit,
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