SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FIREWOOD PRODUCTION IN NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL (1994-2013)

ABSTRACT This paper analyzed the effects of the spatial distribution of the firewood gross production value (GPV) of northeast Brazil through an exploratory approach using spatial data for the period from 1994 to 2013. Identification of spatial clusters in firewood production through the spatial weighting matrices of 2 nearest neighbors and “queen” and “rook” contiguity matrices were used. Based on the analyses, the following can be concluded: there is a positive autocorrelation for firewood GPV; the high-high spatial cluster was formed predominantly in the Bahia region; the high-high spatial cluster, which considers the weight matrix per area, was composed of the Ceará and Pernambuco mesoregions; the low-low spatial cluster consisted of the Sergipe and Alagoas mesoregions; and the low-low cluster, which considers the weight matrix per area, was formed by the Sergipe, Alagoas and Piauí regions.