REGIONAL CONCENTRATION OF FIREWOOD PRODUCTION IN PARAÍBA

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzed the regional concentration of firewood production in Paraíba state, from 1994 to 2014. The data on the quantity of native firewood produced were extracted from the production of the vegetal extraction and forestry available at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística). The regional concentration was determined through the indicators: Concentration Ratio [CR(k)], Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), of Theil’s Entropy index (E), the Hall-Tindelman Index (HTI) and the Gini Index (G). From the analyzes carried out in this study, it was concluded that during the period studied there was a reduction in the production of firewood in Paraíba state, due to the performance of the inspection and environmental agencies, from 1,173,383 m³ in 1994 to 484,142 m³ in 2014; The CR(k) of the firewood production in Paraíba for the 4 largest microregions presented a moderately low concentration and for the 8 largest microregions it was characterized as moderately high; for municipalities demonstrated low concentration and competitive market; the HHI for the municipalities and microregions showed low concentration indicating a highly competitive market. In the mesoregions, there was a moderate concentration of firewood production; and E showed similar behaviors between municipalities and microregions showing low concentration. The mesoregion had little competition among the firewood regions, inferring moderate concentration, thus corroborating HHI; HTI also presented low concentration at regional levels (municipalities, microregions and mesoregions), indicating high competition as the other indicators; the G showed inequality from zero to weak for the municipalities, it obtained weak inequality in the microregions, and medium to strong inequality in the mesoregions.

Keywords:
forest economy; biomass; competitiveness