Decrees creating four conservation units, a message to the Brazilian National Congress for a draft bill about a National Policy for Payment for Environmental Services and the establishment of a Community and Family-based Forest Management Programme were all part of World Environment Day celebrations in Brazil, last Friday (5). All three government acts were signed by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Caravelas (in the state of Bahia), in an event attended by the minister of Environment, Carlos Minc.
The Community and Family-based Forest Management Programme intends to strengthen this type of activity in all Brazilian biomes. Forest management has long been a source of income for rural communities - and it allies the efficient and rational use of forests to local, regional and national sustainable development in Brazil.
According to minister Minc, payment for environmental services is a viable solution for recuperating degraded areas, since it allows populations involved in environmental crimes to find different ways of guaranteeing their livelihood without harming the environment.
The Cassurubá Extractivist Reserve covers approximately 100,6 thousand hectares in Caravelas, Alcobaça and Nova Viçosa (in the state of Bahia), and aims at conserving mangrove swamp ecosystems on the coast of the Brazilian Northeast.
This conservation unit will protect traditional extractivist populations - around 300 families - whose subsistence is based on the sustainable management of mangrove swamps', rivers', estuaries' and shallow marine areas' natural resources in Cassurubá Island and its outskirts. Cassurubá, Prainha do Canto Verde Extractivist Reserve (in the state of Ceará) and Renascer (in the state of Pará) were all established by popular demand.
The Monumento Natural do Rio São Francisco conservation unit, on the other hand, will protect and preserve 30,5 thousand hectares of caatinga biome and is Brazil's first Monumento Natural Federal.
Redes Sociais