Influence of shift cultivation dynamics on the creation of diversity of ethnovarieties propagated as clones

The Atlantic Rainforest is an area of importance for the conservation of biodiversity. Many traditional communities of peasants maintain secular agricultural practices. The relationship between these communities and their environment is of great relevance to the proposition of conservation strategies, because these communities have been interacting with the Rainforest environment through many generations. This paper analyses the influence of agricultural management techniques of shift cultivation on the creation and maintenance of genetic variability of clops at infra and interspecific levels in areas of Atlantic forest in the southern coast of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil We have determined the diversity of crops used by traditional family units, establishing inter actions between the management processes used by the agriculturists and the life history components of their crops. For edible uses, 24 ethnospecies were cited (common names), corresponding to II botanical families and 161 varieties. We also discuss ethnotaxonomical features of cultivated species. The maintenance of diversity and its amplification at the garden level are consequences of the interaction between farmer management and life history components of the crops. Natural dispersion and the establishment of soil seed banks associated to disturbance cycles stimulating colonization are examples of processes involved in the dynamics of diversity amplification.251222