Variações ambientais, econômicas e sociais em áreas com risco de desertificação no núcleo de São Raimundo Nonato - Piauí

Abstract

The issue of desertification was inserted into the international political agenda in the 60's, establishing itself in 1972 when the Stockholm Conference took place. Desertification, a kind of environmental degradation occurs in arid, semiarid and dry sub humid regions of the globe. Piauí has 45.3% of its lands subject to this phenomenon. Considering the harmful consequences of environmental, economic, social and cultural order of desertification, this work has the objective to perform an analysis of social, economic and environmental changes, of the nucleus of Desertification of São RaimundoNonato - Piauí. The results indicate that no changes occurred in the values of NDVI in high and moderately low classes. In the moderately high class there was a slight increase of about 0.6 km2. Most significant changes are observed in the low, very low and exposed soil NDVI classes. There was a decrease in the lower classes from 3.2% to 0.7%, the very low class increased from 71.8% to 86.7%, in the exposed soil class there was a reduction of 25% to 13.3%, indicating improvement in levels of vegetation protection in the area of study. Temporary crops showed a significant drop in the years analyzed, and a consequent increase in permanent crops. There was a reduction of 43.5% in terms of animal unit and 23.9% in the number of head of livestock (cattle, goats and sheep) in the years analyzed. These data reiterates the thesis of the degradation/desertification reduction in the study area. The significant transfer of income by government or social assistance, including allowances, retirement benefits and even government programs in the study area such as benefit reveals the social weakness of the study area. We suggest the development of public policies which are suitable for the potentiality of the study area, such as beekeeping and sheep and goat husbandry, as a way of creating employment and income, with the objective of an effective transformation of the social and economic reality of the local population