TITLE:
Arboreal/Arbustive Component Associated to Livestock Systems in San Vicente del Caguán Municipality, Caquetá—Colombia
AUTHORS:
Ricardo Alberto Martínez Tovar, Laura Constanza Rojas Basto, Pablo Andrés Motta Delgado, Wilmer Herrera Valencia
KEYWORDS:
Amazonia, Agroforestry, Deforestation, Shade Trees, Silvopastoral Systems
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.8 No.12,
November
27,
2017
ABSTRACT: Livestock is the most important economic activity in
San Vicente del Caguán municipality, Caquetá department (located in Colombian Amazon
region). Indeed, livestock activities have a big responsibility of Colombian Amazon
forest deforestation for extensive grazing lands formation, causing soil degradation
processes. However, recently some cattle ranchers have changed their thoughts to
a sustainable production, applying different ecological strategies. So, application
of silvopastoral systems, which is a very important mode of agroforestry, consists
that in the same area and time, it can interact in the ecosystem stratums different
species among grasses, shrubs, and trees. On this way, the objective of this study
is to determine descriptively the arboreal/arbustive component associated to livestock
systems, represented according to its uses in San Vicente del Caguán, Colombia.
It was made through a direct survey to 13 smallholders in this municipality. As
a result, mainly, we found 58 plant species (49 arboreal and nine arbustive, corresponding
to 84.48% and 15.52%, respectively). Of these, 20 species had more than one use
at a time. In fact, the shade was the use most common with 29 species, corresponding
to 34.94% of total species (25 arboreal and just four arbustive, corresponding to
30.12% and 4.82%, respectively). On this way, according to smallholders surveyed,
we can conclude that shade provided by trees integration in silvopastoral systems
is for diminishing heat stress on cattle caused by enduring climate change of tropical,
thus contributing to good welfare for animals.