ORIGIN, EVOLUTION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MARES DE MORROS LANDSCAPE

Abstract

The way that society appropriates natural resources diminishes the resilience of ecosystems, accelerating the degradation of their own environment. The Brazilian landscape of the Mares de Morros lies in a chain of mountains of the Atlantic Plateau and extends along the Brazilian coast across 13 states. While on the one hand significant slopes hinder extensive mechanization, increasing economic and social fragilities, on the other they increase the environmental degradation risks, especially when associated with cattle overgrazing. This research reviewed 748 academic and non-academic documents carried out between 1963 and 2020 with the aim of synthesizing the origin, evolution and sustainability of Mares de Morros, in order to apply this knowledge in sustainable food production. The research found that the lack of knowledge of the historical processes of this landscape has contributed to intensify a cycle of anthropogenic degradation; being the entropic, extractiveagro-exporting matrix of natural resources adopted by the systems considered its greatest vector. It was also identified the existence of modern and intelligent production systems capable of starting a new productive and sustainable cycle for this landscape, even in nonmechanizable lands, that bring a positive perspective for the reversion of this scenario.