Colonos ervateiros: história ambiental e imigração no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The European immigrants that had colonized the south of Brazil have devoted themselves, mostly, to the agriculture and small livestock, but also on a smaller scale, to the extraction of natural assets. This research, which is part of a broader research, used the approach of Environmental History and studied the involvement of immigrants linked to colonization projects with the extraction and cultivation of erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis, Saint-Hilaire) in Rio Grande do Sul state. The time frame from the century XIX into the beginning of XX, corresponds to a time that this product had strong presence in the southern economy. The search interpreted a variety of sources, such as official reports, images, oral testimonies and newspapers that circulated in the areas of colonization. The results indicate a considerable presence of European immigrants or their descendants born in Brazil, in interaction with the national peasantry, the forestry extraction of erva-mate and in the further cultivation of the plant.