The Caatinga socioecological system
The Caatinga dry forest has high inter-and intra-annual rainfall
variation, changing up to 1000% from one year to another in the same
place (Andradeet al., 2017). The rainfall amount goes from 400 to 1500 mm per
year across the biome, being considered the wettest seasonally dry
forest in the world
(Andrade et
al., 2017). The vegetation is dominated by small-leaved, thorny trees
and several species of succulents
(Queiroz et
al., 2017). Water for irrigation comes mostly from rivers and wells,
but as almost all rivers are intermittent, the largest share of the
agriculture is rain-fed or relies on rainfall accumulated in the wetter
valleys (Sampaioet al., 2017). Water for consumption comes from diverse sources
(e.g. wells, cisterns, water trucks), but they are not necessarily of
adequate quality, which can impact local food security
(Sena et al.,
2018). The Caatinga has very diverse soil conditions, but most of the
areas present low fertility which reduces the agricultural aptitude
(Sampaio et
al., 2017). Combined, those environmental characteristics contribute
to the low productivity of the agricultural system and to poor
socioeconomic conditions of most farmers
(Tabarelli et
al., 2017).
The set of municipalities comprising the Caatinga have the lowest levels
of human development in Brazil
(Silva et al.,
2017). Most of the municipalities are considered rural
(IBGE, 2017), where
most farmers produce maize and beans associated with small-scale animal
production for their subsistence
(Sampaio et
al., 2017). Goat production is the main strategy that poor rural
farmers use worldwide in arid and semiarid regions (Caatinga included)
especially during long droughts because of their tolerance to such
climatic conditions and their ability to feed on natural vegetation
(Devendra, 1999).
Bovine production is mostly developed in a pasture with exotic grasses;
however, only capitalised farmers normally engage in cattle production
(Sampaio et
al., 2017). Furthermore, the Caatinga is the most densely populated
dry forest in the world with millions of people living in rural
communities highly dependent on forest products
(Albuquerque et
al., 2017). Although the Caatinga still has intermediate levels of
forest vegetation cover, the forest fragments are not evenly distributed
across the biome
(Antongiovanniet al., 2018) and have high levels of chronic anthropogenic
disturbance linked to the historical use of native vegetation by local
people (Antongiovanniet al., 2020).