Bovinos e Humanos na Transformação da Paisagem do Médio Vale do Rio Paraíba do Sul após o Café

Abstract

The decline of coffee in the mid-Paraíba Valley region, located at the intersection of the states of SP, RJ, and MG, was a relatively rapid process, just as its rise was. By the turn of the 20th century the region, deforested, with impoverished soil and lacking enslaved labor, fell into sharp decline. Almost all of the coffee plantations in the region were replaced by pastures primarily intended for milk and meat production. This paper aims to examine the presence of cattle during and after the coffee plantation period in the region. It finds significant evidence of cattle's agency, alongside humans, in the transformation of the landscape. The geomorphic agency that cattle promote in the pastures is achieved by the creation of paths through trampling, which, with their trails, produce a compartmentalization of the relief of steep slopes, generating so-called terracettes, established almost on contour lines. With the abandonment of pastures, these terracettes are dominated by Clidemia urceolata, a pioneer nucleating species that allows recolonization by the forest. Thus, the arrival of cattle prepares the landscape for livestock farming, and when they leave, it is modified, allowing the return of the forest. Such natural regeneration results in forest vegetation, whose composition is influenced by the century-old land use of the slopes, constituting an ecological response to the history of the landscape.