The use of firewood in protected forests: collection practices and analysis of legal restrictions to extractivism

ABSTRACT Restrictions to the collection of timber resources in protected areas have been scarcely studied. The aim of this study was to describe the practices of firewood collection in a protected forest and the perceptions of collectors, particularly with regard to their adjustment to the rules of the local management plan. The study involved 102 participants of a rural community adjacent to the Araripe National Forest and employed semi-structured interviews, free-listing and in-situ survey techniques for ethnobiological data collection. The volume of wood stored was measured and monitored us...