To celebrate the 6th anniversary of Private Nature Reserve – RPPN Fazenda Caruara, voluntarily created and maintained by the Port of Açu, the enterprise organized a party for children and adolescent scouts from São João da Barra. The goal was to further integration between the community and the reserve and show the importance of preserving the restinga ecosystem in the region where they live.
At the start of the visit, the Brazilian flag was hoisted, and a video paying homage to RPPN Caruara was presented, followed by a walk through the plant nursery that supplies the reserve. After learning about some of the 85 species produced in the nursery, scouts put their hands to work, planting restinga species in the area.
Port of Açu Environment coordinator Daniel Nascimento seized the opportunity to celebrate the approval of the reserve’s Handling Plan by the State’s Environmental Institute (INEA) last week. Now, Caruara’s utilization, visits and preservation may be organized under a management plan. According to Nascimento, it is vital to share such achievements with the locals, who should get more involved with the area: “To celebrate Caruara’s anniversary interacting with the youngest members of our community is a way to spread our environmental preservation and awareness message bit by bit. The reserve is an asset to us and everyone around it,” he added.
Ten-year-old scout João Pedro Valiengo participated in the planting effort and pledged to teach his family everything that he learned: “It was very cool to plant the seed and follow every stage of plant growth. I learned that, by helping nature, we also help each other. I will be telling my parents what I was taught today,” he said.
Ending the morning session on a high note, visitors ate cake and sang Happy Birthday with the traditional scout clapping. In the strong rhythm used in ceremonies, the group clapped in gratitude for their day of learning and contact with nature.
RPPN Caruara
Created in 2012 by the Port of Açu, RPPN Caruara is Brazil’s largest private reserve dedicated to the restinga ecosystem, with approximately 4,000 hectares (or about 4,000 soccer fields) and nearly half of the Port Complex’s operational area. Activities involving vegetation re-composition and monitoring of plants and animals are developed there with local labor. About 40 local residents work there at the moment. All seedlings planted in the reserve are produced in a nursery in the enterprise that is dedicated to restinga species and has annual capacity for 500,000 seedlings. The nursery currently produces and handles 85 species. More than 1 million seedlings were produced and planted in the reserve, some of them belonging to species threatened with extinction.
