ANALYSIS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO COMMUNITY FOREST MANAGEMENT OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT VIROLA JATOBÁ, ANAPU, PARÁ.
Commercial species, Economic potential, Logging, Protected species, Population alteration, Vouacapoua americana.
Studies on floristics and phytosociological structure help to understand the functioning of ecosystems through forest management. If guided by sustainable bases, forest management contributes to conservation and economic gain for traditional communities and family farmers in the Amazon. An assessment of changes in the composition, diversity and floristic structure of a forest fragment of 545,3 hectares in the Virola-Jatobá Sustainable Development Project (PDS) and analyzing scenarios for the management of commercial timber specie Acapu. General results shows the dominance of acapu species (Vouacapoua americana Aubl.) the Fabaceae family and the both before and after logging. Despite being an important commercial species, acapu is protected by law and was not logged. The logging altered the index of species’ coverage value, altered statistically significant the diversity indexes and the structure of the diametric distribution. In addition, features maintained were a high diversity of taxa, an equitable “J” Pilou distribution, floristic similarity greater than 93.2% and an inverted “J” diametric distribution. Even with the good management practices carried out by the PDS settlers, forest management has not proved to be ecologically sustainable due to pressures to log a limited number of species. An analysis of scenarios for the management of Vouacapoua Americana Aubl. attested that its population is suitable to forest management practices targeting the sale of fence poles. The use of local labor was the most profitable scenario, while the sale of logs was economically unfeasible. In areas where acapu occurs widely, the species should be addressed by policies in support to community-based forest management and forest resource planning.