Estudo comparativo do uso e conhecimento de fitocombustíveis em três comunidades rurais na Caatinga paraibana

Abstract

Caatinga is the only exclusively Brazilian biome. Although it is considered by many as a biodiversity-poor region, it is rich in natural resources. In the northeastern region, there is, until current days, high population and other economy sectors dependence on forest products as a source of energy. So it is verified that firewood and charcoal are the most important ways of using forest resources. Therefore, the present work aimed to identify the known, used and preferred fuelwood species in three rural communities in the municipality of Soledade, Paraiba. The collection of ethnobotanical data was conduced in two steps, and developed though permission of the interviewed who signed a term of clarified free consent. Firstly, there were conduced semi-structured interviews in all the households, returning to these households for the interviewed to revise and/or complement the previously given data. The total sample for the study included 55 adult residents, 31 (56.36%) females and 24 (43.64%) males. The interviewed listed 36 species distributed into 30 genera and 15 botanical families, besides two indeterminate plants. The total richness of cited species was 30 in Cachoeira, 23 in Barrocas and 26 in Bom Sucesso, and it was not verified significant differences among the communities (p<0.05) according to species number. The most representative families were Euphorbiaceae,Anacardiaceae, Mimosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae, Sapotaceae e Fabaceae. The species Caesalpinia pyramidalis Tul. (catingueira) was cited with highest frequency in the three communities. It was also observed that knowledge is intimately related to the gender (p<0.05). In the community of Bom Sucesso, where, on average, men used to know more species than women. There were found significant differences in the communities on the relation cited and used plants (p<0.05), indicating that people know more species than they effectively use. It was observed correlation between the species citation as declining and its knowledge (p<0.05) and preference (p<0.05). At last, the studiedcommunities still have relevant fuelwood plants knowledge and use, although the strong influence of Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).