Traditional Agricultural System in the Southern Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
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TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IN THE SOUTHERN ESPINHAÇO RANGE, MINAS GERAIS (BRAZIL) Minas Gerais, Brasil December, 2019 Comissão em Defesa dos Direitos das Comunidades Extrativistas – Apanhadoras de Flores Sempre-Vivas (CODECEX), 2019 Street: Vereador Gustavo Botelho, 129-B Zone: Sagrado Coração de Jesus Diamantina, Minas Gerais Phone: +55 38 997298368 [email protected] GIAHS proposal prepared by: Fernanda Testa Monteiro (LGA/USP), Claudenir Fávero (NAC/UFVJM), Aderval Costa Filho (GESTA/UFMG), Maria Neudes Sousa de Oliveira (NESFV/UFVJM), Gustavo Taboada Soldati (LEA/UFJF) and Reinaldo Duque Brasil Landulfo Teixeira (LEA/UFJF) Dynamic Conservation Plan drafted by: Ângela Cordeiro, Gabriel Dayer Lopes de Barros Moreira, Carlos Alberto Dayrell, Fernanda Testa Monteiro and Claudenir Fávero English translation: David Hathaway Maps: Carlos Henrique Souza e Fernanda Monteiro Photos: João, Ripper, Valda Nogueira, Elisa Cotta, Fernanda Monteiro, Claudenir Fávero, Gabriel Dayer, Carlos Henrique Souza, Maria Flor Brazil e Tiago Carvalho Audiovisual documentary: Tiago Carvalho (direction); Maria Flor Brazil e Daniel Neves (photography); Cláudio Tammela e Tiago Carvalho (direct sound); Cláudio Tammela (edition). This document contains a proposal for the recognition of this Agricultural Heritage System, a plan for its dynamic conservation and related attachments. The Dynamic Conservation Plan was produced through a participatory process, with input from local (community) and regional workshops involving approximately 200 people representing communities, technical advisors, researchers, partner organizations and municipal, state and federal governments. 1 INDEX I. Summary information 3 II. Description of the Agriculture Heritage System 9 II.1 Significance of the Proposed GIAHS Site 9 II.2 Characteristics of the Proposed GIAHS Site 34 1. Food and Livelihood Security 34 2. Agrobiodiversity 39 3. Traditional and Local Knowledge Systems 46 4. Culture, Value System and Social Organisation 66 5. Landscape Features 75 III. Action Plan for the Proposed GIAHS Site 89 ANNEXES 01 Scientific references and documents 145 02 List of species 149 03 Photos 162 04 Audiovisual documentary link 172 05 Official government statements of support for the Traditional 173 Agricultural System in the Southern Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais (BR) proposal to become a GIAHS Site. 2 Provisional Template for GIAHS Proposal I. SUMMARY INFORMATION Name/Title of the Agricultural Heritage System: TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IN THE SOUTHERN ESPINHAÇO RANGE, MINAS GERAIS (BR) Requesting Agency/Organization: Commission for the Defense of Sempre-viva Flowers Gatherers’ Communities – (CODECEX) with support from the Minas Gerais State government and the municipal governments of Diamantina, Buenópolis and Presidente Kubitschek. Responsible Ministry (for the Federal Government): Ministery of Agriculture, Livestocck and Supply - Secretariat for Family Agriculture and Cooperativism Location of the Site: The proposed GIAHS site is in central Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the municipalities of Diamantina, Buenópolis and Presidente Kubitschek. This GIAHS occurs in this region and at present 6 localities/communities are organized and proposing to be recognized as a GIAHS site. 3 Accessibility of the Site to Capital City or Major Cities: The site is 360 km from Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais: 300 km on paved road and the rest on unpaved road. Access is possible by car, bus or air. For airplanes, there are commercial flights to the capital of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte) and from there to Diamantina, which has a regional airport. One can also make the journey from the city of Belo Horizonte to Diamantina by land. Area of Coverage: Approximately 100,000 hectares, covering the 6 localities/communities that make up the site. 4 Agro-Ecological Zones1 (for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries): Most of the topography is covered by mountainous highlands, whose average altitude is 1,400 meters, in the region of Diamantina, and a minimum of 600 meters. The central part of the highlands is the highest, in the Diamantina Plateau, with a flattened relief permeated by quartzite rocks and a predominance of shallow, sandy and dystrophic soils. At the edges there are steep scarps and steps. The scarps descend to 600 meters, where there are larger waterways, with a soft-wavy relief, sandy-clay and dystrophic soils. Topographic Features: The Traditional Agricultural System in the Southern Espinhaço Range (Serra do Espinhaço Meridional – Minas Gerais/BR) comprises environments of flattened fields in the high- altitude areas (1,400 m), and adjoining ridges, steep slopes and deep valleys, intersected by water bodies, reaching plains in the landscape’s lowlands (600 m), where there are drainage areas near the river beds. Climate Type: The high-altitude climate is Cwb, using the Köppen classification, typical of highlands with summer rains. The average annual temperature is 18.7° C, with cold, dry winters and mild, humid summers. Average annual rainfall is 1,500 mm. At 600 m., the climate is Cwa, using the Köppen classification, with rain and high temperatures in the summer, while the winter is dry, with lower temperatures. The average annual temperature at this altitude is 22.5º C, and average annual rainfall is 1.170 mm. The dry and rainy seasons are well defined, lasting six months each, with the dry season from May to October, with less than 50 mm of rainfall during the driest month. Approximate Population (Beneficiary): Approximately 1,500 individuals. Ethnicity/Indigenous population: Traditional communities descending from indigenous peoples, Europeans and Africans enslaved in Brazil until 1888. 1 Agro-ecological zones are defined by FAO as homogenous and contiguous areas with similar soil, land and climate characteristics. 5 Main Source of Livelihoods: Agriculture, livestock and non-timber forestry products native to the savannah biome (Brazil’s Cerrado region). Executive Summary (one page approximately): In Brazil, the Serra do Espinhaço (Big Spine or Espinhaço Range) is the country’s only mountain range, making it an important geographic, historical and cultural reference in Minas Gerais State. It is the divide between two of Brazil’s major river basins, has outstanding biodiversity endemism and was long settled by indigenous peoples (for at least 10,000 years), until the arrival of Portuguese and African immigrants during colonial times, in the late 1600s. The rural communities now living in the southern portion of the Espinhaço Range in Minas Gerais represent the coming together of those agri-cultures. Today’s agricultural system is the outcome of co-adaptation, which has evolved in the area over time. The Traditional Agricultural System in the Southern Espinhaço Range, Minas Gerais, is located in a Brazilian Savannah region, with a transition area to the Atlantic Forest in the east. Its great diversity of edaphoclimatic conditions varies from highlands (1,400 m), to steep slopes and deep valleys, intersected by water bodies at lower altitudes (600 m), where there are drainage areas near the river beds. There is a predominance of sandy, shallow and dystrophic soils at high altitudes and dystrophic sandy-clay soils at low altitudes. The climate in the high fields is Cwb (as per Köppen) with an average annual temperature of 18.7º C, and average annual precipitation of 1,500 mm. At lower levels (600m), the climate is Cwa (Köppen), with an average annual temperature of 22.5º C and annual average rainfall of 1,170 mm. Semi-arid conditions prevail in this lower part of the landscape. The complexities of verticalities and horizontalities in the system’s landscape confer elasticity and flexibility to local agri-food strategies. This system combines different altitudes, soils, climates and much biodiversity associated with different edaphoclimatic characteristics and a wide range of traditional knowledge on the use of these natural resources, generating different agro-environments. The system has also gone through adverse social, political, economic and environmental situations. As a result, we have unique managed landscapes, abundant water, a hotspot of native biodiversity, vast agrobiodiversity and considerable cultural density. In practice, the combination of agriculture, grazing and extractivism in the system 6 developed here has given rise to polycultures controlled by rural families in areas of native vegetation; agroforestry gardening with a high density of food species and small animals of local breeds raised around the houses; larger rustic livestock in native fields on common- use lands in the highlands; and extraction/management of native flora species at different altitudes for food, traditional medicine, festivities, domestic construction and ornamental plants for sale. These communities’ traditional way of life feeds a rich agricultural and biocultural heritage in a beautiful managed landscape. The cultural identity of the “sempre-viva flowers gatherers” (apanhadores de flores sempre-vivas, as they call themselves) is rooted in a sense of belonging to this vast territory and the socio-cultural practices developed in the campos rupestres (characterized by their rupestrian grassland in savanna vegetation) of Brazil’s Cerrado biome. The communities’ territorial practices combine contained environments at higher altitudes (in the common-use lands at 1,400 m, mainly for native flowers gathering and livestock grazing on native vegetation) with “foothill” activities (at 600 m, where