Desafios da pecuária de corte frente à conservação dos ecossistemas campestres: desenvolvimento sustentável no Bioma Pampa

Abstract

Pampa Biome, a region where cattle farming is indicated for conserving natural grasslands, is a biome that allows the integration of food production with biodiversity conservation. The landscape is maintained by the grazing of ruminants that traditionally occupy the area. The conversion of natural grasslands and consequent alterations of the landscapes highlights the need for better management strategies for cattle farming and natural grasslands. Therefore, it is important to identify which municipalities encounter difficulties while working on concepts of sustainability that are applicable to cattle farming and which criteria need more attention for a better scenario. The use of indicators for this scenario is a valid strategy and can support public policies for the conservation of the Pampa. Thus, this research aims to identify areas of tension in relation to the concept of sustainable development and the precepts of beef cattle production, analyzing the implications of this activity for the conservation of the natural grasslands of the Brazilian Pampa Biome and evaluate the impact of grazing on productivity of subtropical grasslands. In the first article, municipalities were characterized according to factors that require specific actions for sustainable development based on a Sustainable Stress Index (STI). The STI is an index composed of descriptors variables for the economic, social and environmental realities in governmental databases. Despite the analysis revealed most of Pampa’s municipalities with intermediaries STI it was also possible to analyze the locations that stand out positively and negatively according to the STI. Only three municipalities had low tension results in the three dimensions, indicating that, although the values are in a moderate range, few municipalities are fully featured in the dimensions analyzed. In the second paper, indicators of the aboveground net primary (calculate with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index – NDVI) production were used to evaluate the impact of livestock in subtropical grasslands. An inverse quadratic relation between the cattle herd and the NDVI values was observed, indicating that more cattle affect negatively the primary productivity. In the same way, rainfall presents an inverse quadratic relation with a primary productivity. The cattle price showed a positive quadratic relation with the cattle herd, indicating that the economic variations indirectly affect the primary productivity through the size of cattle herds. The results indicate that the variations in productivity are based on climatic and economic factors, being fundamental the analysis of the number of animals in the fields, as well as of cattle price fluctuations, indicating that they are indispensable for the multidisciplinary strategies for conservation strategies in the subtropical grasslands. Hence, the economic and social interests are fundamental for the elaboration of management strategies towards the conservation of grasslands ecosystems.