Tree nurseries
Brazil was once covered with immense forests sheltering fauna and flora of an extraordinary variety. Biologists from all over the world have listed millions of animal and vegetal species.
Nevertheless, for centuries this country has been suffering from an intense deforestation that has only gotten worse during the last decades. The main causes of this deforestation are extensive rearing and industrial agriculture.
In certain municipalities, more than 90% of the lands have been deforested. These operations have weakened the hydric basin, causing such important erosion that the earth is on the verge of desertification. The once flourishing traditional agriculture is now often abandoned because the soil has become so poor.
Yet despite all this, some remnants of native forests have subsisted throughout the country, remnants from which seeds have been taken to start a process of reforestation.
It is through the creation of nurseries that our first reforestation programs were born.
Nurseries necessitate a know-how gained through knowledge of the different forms of seed germination. This is a complex process which we learned to improve through experimentation and with the help of forest engineers and inhabitants of the forest.
Today, attracted by our know-how, locals wishing to reforest certain reclaimed areas ask us to plant new nurseries in different regions of Brazil. This is the beginning of what is commonly called « the multiplying effect ».
Reforestation constitutes one of the major axes of Nordesta’s actions and has been at the origin of several successful projects.
Nurseries
Planting nurseries in villages is the first step toward the future reforestation of damaged areas.
Besides its fundamental impact on the environment, these structures we have created generate permanent employment and up-and-coming jobs for villagers who work under the direction of agricultural technicians.
In addition to the reforestation itself, nurseries also serve as pedagogical aids for the whole population, notably by the organising of conferences or the editing of posters conveying information which helps to:
- Maintain the biodiversity
- Slow down the erosion due to violent rainfalls
- Ease the infiltration of rainwater down to the phreatic layer
Nordesta Reforestation & Education has set up important projects born directly from the development of nurseries.
« Arco Iris » reforestation project.
Saving the Pedra Talhada forest - straddled over the States of Alagoas and Pernambuco - has been Nordesta‘s priority since 1989, the year of our first vast reforestation operation. Our goal is to bring the forest out of its isolation by connecting it to other small forest massifs.
The banks of the rivers Paraïba and Carangueija, as well as the reservoir they supply (located above the village of Quebrangulo), have been urgently reforested.
Reforestation around the springs of the São Francisco river
The São Francisco river is of a vital importance to the millions of people living all along its 2'800 kilometres. It originates in the Minas Gerais mountains and crosses 5 States before flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, north of Salvador de Bahia.
The river is fed by thousands of tributaries whose flows are diminishing due to deforestation.
Our project consists in planting trees around springs and in making the young generations (especially the students) aware of how crucial reforestation is. We began this project in 2005 on the initiative of 5 riverside communes. The excitement generated by our success was so extraordinary that thirty other communes have asked to become a part of the project.
To this day, collaborating with local authorities, we have been able to plant 1 million trees around the river’s springs and banks.
Behaviors are starting to change: many new partners have joined us in our fight for the restoration of the river’s health. We can achieve our common goal by offering a specific training to those teachers willing to address the problem in schools.
We have two other big reforestation projects around the springs of the Rio Grande flowing south (Paraguay, Argentina) and of the Rio Parnaiba flowing north into the Atlantic Ocean (Maranhão, Piaui). These two rivers cover large hydric basins on which millions of men depend.
Finally, we have accepted the challenge of reforesting a region in danger of desertification in the municipality of Gilbués, State of Piaui.