Potential of anthropic pressure in the Northeast Paraense region, Brazil

ABSTRACT

The intensification of agriculture in the Amazon threatens the maintenance of biodiversity, interferes with water cycling and carbon stocks, altering biogeochemical cycles on a local and regional scale. Recently, in the Amazon, public policies have been created to promote sustainable development, as observed with the National Plan for the Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB) in 2005 and the Sustainable Palm Oil Production Program (PPSOP) in 2010, facilitating the entry of some municipalities in the northeast of Pará to the oil palm productive chain (oil palm - Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Thus, the objective is to quantify the vegetation cover and land use to assess the environmental quality of the municipality of Mãe do Rio in Pará for the years 2008 and 2016. The methodology includes bibliographic review, spatial/temporal analysis of the coverage and use of land, and the Anthropic Transformation Index (ITA). The results show that the main changes that occurred in 2008 and 2016 are: i. the continuous deforestation of primary forests, while the secondary forest increases in area; ii. the gradual expansion of oil palm over agricultural areas; iii. the increase in the area of ​​exposed soil indicates a high turnover in land use and coverage; iv. in 2008 and 2016, the indexes are 7.56 and 7.64 respectively, considered “potentially unsustainable,” due to the continuous suppression of primary, degraded and campinaranas forests, favoring the loss of biodiversity in the region, a condition that justifies support for oil palm.

Keywords:
Amazon; Sustainability; Land use