Vegetation and land use mapping of Ipanema national forest, Iperó/SP

Abstract

Aiming to contribute to the management plan of the Ipanema National Forest, the present research set out to make a map of the potential vegetation and vegetation and current usage of the land, offering basic aids to the environmental planning. Moreover, we have prepared a sketch-map, the potential vegetation of FLONA, utilizing: details of naturalist's trekking routes (Saint-Hilaire, Spix and Martius) in Brazil, in the XIX century; more recent studies of the FLONA vegetation; and the edaphic characterization of the area presented by the Soil Chart of Ipanema Farm (scale 1:10.000). We are still collecting data, based on the interpretation of aerial photos (scale 1:25.000 - Terrafoto, 1972) and inspects of the site, as well as the map of Vegetation and the Current Usage of the Land (scale 1: 50.000). Based on the concepts of climatic climax and edaphic climaxes we have concluded that the potential vegetation of FLONA would be a seasonal semi-deciduous forest with specimens of a dense, mixed rain forest with diverse semblances of scrub land, restricted in its development by the acts of fires, which in the past were natural causes

Keywords

• Ipanema National Forest
• protected area
• potential vegetation
• land uses
• management plan