Agroforestry in Areas of Secondary Growth
Translated from Portuguese. Original published by PRETATERRA.
I have a farm in Garrafão, district of Santa Maria do Jetibá, ES, with an altitude of 1,200m, with an area of 25 ha, 2.5 ha in native forest and the rest in secondary growth (capoeira), it has a good spring with lots of water, undulating topography that is easy to mechanize and even gravity irrigation. I intend to implement a reforestation project with Portuguese chestnuts, aiming at production and carbon credit. Can I use capoeira or do I have to get rid of it and cover the soil with other vegetation?
– Question from Wanderley Batista via email
Wanderley sent us this question, which is so interesting that it will be answered in two parts:
About the legislation:
The first step you have to take is to contact the environmental agency in your region. This is because understanding environmental/forestry legislation will depend on the inspector’s reading. As your property is located in the Atlantic Forest, which, as it is highly threatened and fragmented, has greater environmental protection, you will most likely need authorization to manage your secondary growth, if it is old (i.e., with more than 5 years of environmental regeneration), even if it is outside the APP or Legal Reserve, and present a Management Plan before being able to carry out any operation.
It is worth mentioning that it is great that you have this area of secondary growth on your property, as this means that your area is in the process of recovery, that is, that your soil is recovering, the plants are emitting roots and cycling nutrients in depth, there is biomass production, soil cover and initial shading. In addition to the discussion on environmental and forestry legislation, which will depend on the legal procedure that must be followed according to the environmental agency in your region, technically speaking, the ideal is to manage this area and there are two options for this.
Managing secondary growth:
The first option, for an area with older secondary growth (with more than five years of regeneration), after completing the necessary legal procedures, such as the preparation of the Management Plan, involves identifying the pioneer species, lianas and climbers, so that they can be managed following the logic of natural succession, that is, pruning, shredding or cutting these plants with a chainsaw, machete or shredder to produce biomass. These are risky operations that require a lot of work, as they require the selection of species and care for others, but they are rewarding, as after this process you will be able to enrich natural regeneration with secondary species and take advantage of the remaining species. After this selective pruning process for biomass production, it is time to identify the remaining secondary species or species of commercial interest. This mapping of individuals is important for planning the planting of commercial exotic species, such as Portuguese chestnuts. This species needs a fairly large spacing, 12x12m or 15x15m, so it will also be time to decide how to plant to enrich the understory or which other crops can be part of your system.
The second option considers younger or less established secondary growth, less than five years old. In this case, depending on what environmental and forestry legislation allows, you can use a brush cutter or shredder to use all the material as biomass for initial soil cover, following the logic of foundation green manure, in which the dense planting of fertilizer species is carried out to prepare the planting rows in the following year and obtaining a dense soil cover. After shredding the vegetation, the planting lines and system planning can be marked.
Choosing one of the two options will depend on the level of regeneration your area is in, consultation with the environmental agency in your region and how much you are willing to invest in this process, whether legally (presentation of the Management Plan) or operationally. All of these factors, starting with a visit to the environmental agency in your region, should be considered to make a well-informed decision that is beneficial for everyone in the long term.
