Degradation of the northern paraná landscape: a study on forest fragments

Abstract

Due to a fast occupation process, nearly all of the native vegetal covering of northern Paraná was devastated. Considering the lack of basic studies that support the management of forest remainders, this dissertation studies the forest fragmentation of the landscape in a transect of 180 km (between Maringá and Jacarezinho), considering a time and/or age of occupation gradient. One has adopted the hypothesis that the landscape to west, colonized from 1930 (Londrina) and 1947 (Maringá), suffered smaller degradation in a comparison with what happened in the landscape situated further to east (and colonized in the mid 19th century and early 20th century). Results demonstrated that the initial hypothesis should be refute. Historical and factors socioeconomic influenced the occupation way and, consequently, the distribution of the forest fragments in the landscape.