O uso de sistemas agroflorestais diversificados na restauração florestal na Mata Atlântica

The Brazilian new environmental law permits the use of agroforestry systems to restore degraded areas protected by legislation, especially in small farms. One question that arises is if it is possible to reduce costs of the restoration process with these agroforestry systems and, at the same time, to offer ecological services, similar to afforestation with the exclusive use of native species of the Atlantic Forest biome. Seeking results to proof the effectivity, an agroforestry system established in 2005, at Seropedica, RJ state, with the objective of connecting two forest fragments, went through a series of evaluations realized on the ecological effectiveness on the connection of these fragments. The results indicated that the quantity and quality of soil fauna and mycorrhizal fungi obtained benefits by the agroforestry system in comparison to the pasture matrix, but are still at lower levels than the forest fragments. Pasture near the agroforestry system has benefited from the environmental improvement there, originated from a “positive edge effect”, a situation quite different from the pasture that was farther from the area of influence of the agroforestry corridor. For the indicators used, the agroforestry system was eficient.