Candidatura Reserva da Biosfera - Santana Madeira Biosfera

The ownership type of forest is characteristically very small plots, given that of
forest holdings 85% have an area less than 0.5 ha, 10% between 0.5 ha and 1 ha and
only 5% have more than one ha plots. Most of exotic forestry plantations is composed of
disordered, not subject to forest management plans and are mostly private property.
The lack of enforcement of forest harvesting operations and cleaning of forest plots
using techniques such as preventive forestry using pruning and thinning, provides the
accumulation of massive fuel loads such as the branches, bark and other forest residues,
raising exponentially the risk of fire in these areas.
The development of forest management plans and implementation of forest
harvesting operations, would keep the exotic forest plots in high productive state, either
in the production of timber and celulose pulp for the paper industry, as in the valuable
waste from forest harvesting operations, that can be used as fuel for biomass energy
production.
The orographic characteristics influence the size of agricultural parcels, which are
mostly built on small arranged volcanic rock terraces. Of the 10 382 farms registered,
9761 have an area less than 1 ha, in a total of 2713 hectares, 589 are between 1 and 5
ha comprising 885 ha of total agricultural area and only 21 have an area greater than 5
ha, in a total of 267 ha. Of the total number of farms, 8106 (1757 hectares) are used for
permanent crops such as banana, orange, tangerine, apple, pear, cherry, lemon, plum,
chestnut and vines, and other crops with minor expression as the custard apple, cherry,
passion fruit and tamarilho. In the commercial production of vegetables, mainly cabbage,
beans, sweet potatoes, potatoes, lettuce, onion, pumpkin and wheat, are produced in
7922 farms with 1715 ha. About 4559 small-sized farms, totaling 108 ha family farms
are mainly devoted to subsistence farming or for their own consumption. Permanent
pasture is the less frequent agricultural use due to the low number of livestock
producers, about 545, occupying an area of 286 ha. In fact cattle rearing is much lower
at present, limited to about 6000 cows, 17 000 pigs, 2000 sheep and 4000 head of
goats. Though there are some for larger farms and more industrialized, most cattle
producers have on average only three heads of cattle, which are created in small cattle
barns.
Application of Santana, Madeira to Biosphere Reserve – UNESCO - MAB 105