. RESUMOO babaçu é uma planta de importância capital na economia de subsistência do norte do Brasil. Sua configuração sócio-ambiental o torna destaque na situação regional amazônica, onde os produtos advindos do babaçu possibilitam renda para a camada mais pobre da população amazônica, além da questão ambiental que é conotada à preservação dos babaçuais naturais. Um dos gargalos técnicos da produção do babaçu, em especial visando a extração do óleo de babaçu, é a colheita feita de forma manual e no sistema extrativista. O objetivo deste trabalho é propor o conceito de uma colhedora de babaçu moto-mecanizada, capaz de trabalhar em cultivos artificiais, assim como em florestas naturais. Foi utilizada a metodologia de projeto da matriz morfológica, onde foram elencadas as possíveis combinações de mecanismos e elementos para uma colhedora de babaçu. Como resultado foi obtido um conceito teórico, sendo concluída a viabilidade técnica de tal projeto, em estudos futuros pretende-se desenvolver estudos de viabilidade técnica detalhados, assim como estudos de viabilidade econômica. PALAVRAS-CHAVE Babaçu, Colhedora, Matriz morfológica Proposal of harvest's babaçu machine (Orbignya phalerata Mart.) for the small farms ABSTRACTThe babaçu is an important plant in subsistence economy in northern Brazil. The environment-social configuration of babaçu is prominent in the Amazonian regional situation, where its products are a means of income for the more impoverished Amazonian population, besides the question of the environment, which is relative to its preservation in the forest. One of the technical obstacles to babaçu production, especially with regard to extracting its oil, is manual harvesting and extractive system. The objective of this work is to propose motorized harvesting in both artificial and natural forests. It was used the project methodology morphological matrix, that numbering the possible configurations os mechanism and elements for the babaçu's harvest. The result was a theoretical concept, it has been concluded the technical viability of project, future studies they intend to develop the detail technical viability as well as the economic viability.

Travelling to the Slovak Republic, one of the new (since 2004) member-states of the EU, was a very pleasant surprise. From the point of view of human and natural ecology, this country of about 49,000 km² and 5.4 million inhabitants is constituted by two main regions: the Tatra Mountains (where the forest is the primary resource) and the lowlands of the Danube plain (a fertile farming region that produces wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beet, fruit, tobacco and grapes) 3. The capital, Bratislava (located close to the border with Austria and just over 50 km away from Wien and Hungary), is the main entrance point to this country. The International Conference on "Bioclimatology and Natural Hazards" took place on September 17-20, 2007, and was organized by the Faculty of Forestry of the Natural Environment Department, Technical University of Zvolen (the only faculty in Slovakia that provides advanced training in the field of wood processing). Zvolen itself is a very nice town of about 45,000 inhabitants located in central Slovakia, with a history of more than 760 years. Although the foundation of its Castle, known as the Deserted Castle, dates back to the 10 th century, the rise to town status did not occur until 1243, when King Belo IV granted royal town privileges to Zvolen. The historical influence of the Hungarian empire is manifest in the current structure of the population of Zvolen: although more than 80% are Slovaks, 11% originate in that ethnic region. In the 19 th century, L'udovít Štúr became the first member of the Hungarian Parliament to represent Zvolen. He actively sought to advance the causes of the national liberation of the Slovaks, the recognition of the Slovak language and the granting of equal civil rights to the Slovak nation as a whole (http://eng.zvolen.eu). The aim of the conference was to "discuss exclusively recent research developments in the interactions between meteorological, climatological, hydrological and biological processes in both atmosphere and soil" (from the conference flyer). The plenary sessions took place in the building of the Technical University, whereas the remaining ones were