Entre campos e florestas: transformações da paisagem no Município de Palmas/PR (1950 a 1980)

Abstract

Occupied for centuries by many indigenous groups, the fields and forests from the region where nowadays is the town of Palmas, localized in the southern part of Paraná state, landed many luso-brazilian farmers from 1840s onwards, in an expansion movement of the breeding cattle activities that it had already established on the north, in Guarapuava’s Fields. The livestock farming would shape this landscape, which the main feature was the extensive breeding on the fields areas whom they weren’t, or were little handled, except by the use of fire ignitions. This situation has changed only on the following century, from 1950s onwards, when it has glimpsed a bigger presence of the timber and agricultural sectors, changing in a significant way the regional landscape. Thereby, the present dissertation has the purpose to understand the transformations of the landscape, from the moment it had happened the exploitation of the timber resources from the fields and forests of the region. To accomplish the objective of this research, we analyzed many different sources, such as the reports sent to Paraná’s Government, official letters, demographic census and statistical data of the amount of timber exploitation in both state and municipality. Besides these documents, we highlighted the cataloging, in a twenty years period, of the localization licenses of the lumberyards. They provided important data about the localization and exploitation of the forest. Together with the analysis of images and maps, it was possible to examine and chart the acting of the timber sector as well as the landscape’s changes. They were supported by the one hundred and nine companies that operated during the examined time. This period ended in the 1980s, when new activities based on planting and cultivation of the pine tree (Pinus sp.) started to develop in the area.