Evaluation of Pineapple Crop Used as Firebreak in Roraima, Amazonia

Firebreaks are areas around fields with economic activities where vegetation is removed or modified in order to make fire propagation difficult, and hence protecting these areas from fire damage. Hedgerows used as firebreaks are a group of plants with the capacity of staying green and humid during the dry season. The use of hedgerows has been studied in Amazonia, especially in regions prone to forest fires as a consequence of intensive use of burnings which cause large ecological, social and economic damage. The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of pineapple crops as firebreak hedgerows in fire prone regions of Roraima State, Brazil, in comparison with plants from other groups of herbaceous species (Desmodium ovalifolium and Arachis sp.), commonly used in rural areas in Amazonia. Results indicated that the treatments with pineapple, not only in dense crops but also in traditional ones, did not allow fire propagation as a consequence of high humidity in its aboveground biomass and its good soil coverage increasing burning time and avoiding fire propagation. Pineapple crops showed to have desired characteristics to avoid fire propagation, superior to those of the other treatments studied.