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13/03/2006
Paraná, an example in the defense of biodiversity
On the last 150 years, with the occupation of the 20 million hectares that form the state of Paraná, and the implementation of extremely profitable and productive agriculture, 18 million hectares of forest and native fields were chopped down and substituted. Cities and endless plantations of soybeans, coffee, corn, wheat and sugar cane now occupy what were the wide woods of the Atlantic Forest and its rich biodiversity. It was a unrestrained occupation, which, by the way, had no worry about the environment and encouraged by a policy for development at any cost, which has only started being modified on the last 20 years, with the growth of the environmental movement and a greater awareness of the population. The bigger heritage of this devastating process, under an economic point of view, is the existence of a strong and modern agriculture, which represents 30% of the Brazilian grain production, harvesting 28 million tons and exporting approximately US$ 6,5 billion annually. On the point of view of the environment, though, what lasts today is forestall covering with less than 10% of the original forest, large degraded areas, silted up rivers and sensitive changes on the microclimate and the intensive use of chemical products to keep the fertility of the soil.
Chart – Paraná’s biomes
The State of Paraná has got 61 state units of preservation, which sums up 1 million and 186 thousand hectares of preserved areas, being 34 Units of Preservation of Integral Protection with 69,4 thousand hectares and 27 units of preservation of sustained use with 116 thousand hectares.
The phytogeography of the State of Paraná has got 3 biomes and their ecosystems:
Dense Ombrophyla Forest with 16 units of conservation
Mixed Ombrophyla Forest with 29 units of preservation
Semi-decidual Seasonal Forest with 16 units of preservation
To start reverting this degraded environmental scenery, Paraná’s Government has started, from 2003 on, the project of construction of a solid and self-sufficient economy, but based on a sustained model of development and social inclusion with a deep worry with the environment. It’s an independent and original way which brings immediate results but, above all, it doesn’t fail to build foundations for the future, mainly for its agriculture.
This project is based in a block of actions with programs such as the one of the Ciliar Wood, launched in November of 2003, and which is reforesting and recovering the banks of the rivers, dams, lakes, streams and springs, foreseeing the planting of 90 million trees up to the end of 2006. Up to here, the Ciliar Wood has already been responsible for the plantation of 34 million scions in gatherings which involved thousand of people and communities and have beaten world’s records such as the plantation of 1 million scions in only one day in 2004 and 5 million scions in the week of the trees, in 2005. With that, Paraná has created an structure and capacity for an annual production of 20 thousand tons of seeds and 40 million scions of 64 species of different native trees.
It’s a change in paradigm: three years before it was really hard to see an agriculturist planting trees and realizing the importance of the ciliar wood, protecting the river, keeping the quality of the water and soil. Nowadays, 42,124 producers are already benefited by the program and 32 thousand hectares are planted, 10 thousand preserved and more than 8 thousand kilometers of fences protecting the area.
Another supporting procedure to recover the environment is the Program Corridors of Biodiversity or ecological corridors as they are also known, and which correspond to a new concept of preservation which aims to decrease or hold the isolating process of the Units of Preservation, caused by the growing fragmentation of natural environments.
The project Paraná Biodiversity wants to implement three corridors: Corridor Caiuá-Ilha Grande, Corridor Araucaria and Corridor Iguaçu-Paraná, comprehending respectively the Seasonal Forest and the Forest with Araucaria, and a third Corridor which finds itself in an area of transition between both eco-regions. The area of the three Corridors sums up around 10% of the State’s total area, comprehending 63 counties. Several State Secretaries have united themselves in order to implement the idea: Secretary of Environment and Hydric Resources, Secretary of Planning and Secretary of Supplying and also creating partnership with other sectors and institutions in the State.
The third supporting procedure of this strategy is in the action in the agricultural model which has devastated the State: to encourage the practice of an agriculture more connected to the concepts of environmental preservation, with total support to the development of organic and biodynamic production, and also a rigid and effective control over the sowing of genetic modified organisms (transgenic).
In the organic production, Paraná counts with its Paraná’s Center of Reference in Agro-ecology and it is the leader in Brazil with a planted area of more than 100 thousand hectares, with 4,100 organic producers and a 70-thousand-tons production spread through its whole territory. In the Brazilian market of organic products, Paraná occupies a double leadership position. It’s not only the state which produces more, it’s also the one which exports more. In 2004, Brazil profited US$ 115 million in international sales of organic – and Paraná was responsible for not less than US$ 91,5 million, approximately 80% of the total.
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