Açu Port participated in the IV Environmental Reforestation Congress in Brazil, which is being held until October 21 in the headquarters of the Regional Engineering and Architecture Council (CREA) in Rio de Janeiro. The port’s Environment team was invited to lecture due to its work in maintaining, inside the port complex, the country’s largest restinga restoration program. The enterprise created Private Nature Reserve (RPPN) Fazenda Caruara four years ago, and more than 1 million seedlings have since been produced in a nursery and planted across more than 700 hectares. This is Brazil’s largest private conservation unit dedicated to the restinga shrub forest, with 4,000 hectares, and the only one in Rio de Janeiro state protecting this type of ecosystem. The restinga restoration experience will be presented in the second day of the congress by Açu Port’s Forest Engineer Daniel Nascimento.
“We are very glad to participate in the congress by addressing RPPN Fazenda Caruara, which is such a big reason of pride for us. We have voluntarily created the preservation area and, since then, we developed handling techniques for species of restinga, which is a little-known ecosystem in the country. I think it is very important to share experiences and certainly we will take advantage of the exchange of knowledge that the event will promote,” Nascimento said.
The area maintained by the port represents about 60% of all private reserves created by the state. Seedlings planted in the RPPN are produced in a nursery installed in the port. The nursery is dedicated to restinga species and has capacity to produce up to 500,000 seedlings per year, being the largest in Latin America. The nursery currently produces and handles more than 70 restinga species, some of them endangered in Brazil. The project relies on local labor. About 40 collaborators involved in plant restoration and animal monitoring live in the region.
RPPN Fazenda Caruara is responsible for more than half of revenues related to the Green ICMS tax in São João da Barra. According to the state’s Environment Secretary, in 2015 alone, the city received 1,712,216.00 reais in the pass-through of financial resources. The Green ICMS was created as an incentive for cities to develop efforts to preserve their natural heritage and hold preservation units, protected areas and water springs in their territories.
