Extractivism of non-timber forest resources in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: the Rumohra adiantiformis (G. Forest) Ching case

The goal of this research is to study the activity of the Rumohra adiantiformis (G. Forest) Ching (also called “samambaia-preta”) in the Atlantic Forest from a socioeconomic and spatial perspective and aims to contribute to the farmers perception on the extrativism as an income generating activity, to evaluate the use of samambaia-preta storage, detecting possible shortage, and the extrativist farmers interest in investments to mantain the activity. The methodological focus of this work is based on the “case study of Garapiá and Forqueta Valleys – town of Maquiné, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil”, which would make possible the acquisition of a more complete perception of the study object, under a Quanti-Quali methodological focus represented by interviews, direct and indirect documentation and spatial analysis through cartography and mapping. The results refer to the characterization of the samambaia-preta extrativism, and among the main characteristics and problems encountered we have: it is an extrativism of leaves harvesting, includes families whose main activities are agricultural and pecuary production, the samambaia- preta areas of occurrence are diminishing due to the abandonment of cultural practices by the farmers, the distance to cover in order to harvest the leaves, which is gradually increasing due to the each time smaller storage near the houses, the market potencialities of samambaia-preta are yet unknown as well as the current legislation that prevails over the extractivist activities and its territory, lack of communitarian organization, production and trade management deficiency, lack of handling, improvement and transportation means and the low purchase price of the samambaia-preta in the system base, once the prices are stablished by the profiteer.