The Brazilian Pantanal suffered immense wildfires in 2020, affecting almost a third of the biome. The Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative and the Giant Armadillo Conservation joined forces to help fundraise for urgent mitigation purposes in 2020, but also collaborated to create long term preventive measures through the creation of community-based fire brigades.

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Face the various social and environmental challenges in degraded areas of permanent preservation (APPs) and water recharge in the Rio Doce Basin (in the states Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo), IPÊ started the Education, Landscape and Community project, with the purpose of supporting soil regeneration and water conservation in influential areas from the basin, through community involvement and agroecology development.

Operating for the first time in Espírito Santo, the Institute takes to rural settlements in Alto Rio Novo and Águia Branca counties (areas of influence of the Rio Doce Basin) the successful social technology that it developed over 20 years ago with farmers in Pontal do Paranapanema, in the far west of the state of São Paulo. Among the actions there are environmental education, training and rural extension, with the application of sustainable productions such as agroecology.

The initiative is part of the School and Community Integration action line, carried out by IPÊ and its school, ESCAS - University of Environmental Conservation and Sustainability. In its edition in Espírito Santo, the project is now working to benefit 143 small properties in four rural settlements selected due to the potential of scale and applicability of the activities.

“School and Community Integration is a very interesting means of implementing a socio-environmental agenda for transformation. Through ESCAS, the IPÊ school, we bring education tools to the population, combining our expertise in science and social mobilization for real change. This is the principle adopted, even at Pontal do Paranapanema, where we have been working with communities for almost 30 years”, explains Eduardo Badialli, project coordinator.

Among some of the main activities of the project is the implementation of IPPs (Individual Property Projects) that contemplates forest restoration in rural landscapes and sustainable rural production in family farming.

Field activities with the communities started in August 2021 and will continue for two years. The work is in partnership with the Renova Foundation.

About 120 communities who live in Protected Areas in Amazon received capacitation and training to watch irapuca’s (Podocnemis erythrocephala), tracajá’s (Podocnemis unifilis) and amazon turtles’ (Podocnemis expansa) species protected nests, since the spawning until the eggs hatch. The action happened in early July until the beginning of August and aims to help the hatchlings survive. The period of time chosen for this capacitation is the dryer one, for it’s when the turtle’s spawn occurs.

Virgínia Bernardes, scientific coordinator in Biodiversity Participative Monitoring - Monitoramento Participativo de Biodiversidade (MPB/IPÊ)  -, joined the team of analysts, brigade and Núcleo de Gestão Integrada (NGI) Novo Airão volunteers, and for 18 days, crossed every community in Jaú and Unini rivers which are inserted in Jaú’s National Park (Parque Nacional (Parna) do Jaú),  Extractive Reserve Rio Unini (Reserva Extrativista (Resex) Rio Unini) and Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve (Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (RDS) Amanã).

“The capacitations are extremely important for the permanence of the success in data collection and monitor engagement. Moreover, the meetings between the researchers, focal point and monitors are the ones that enable the dialogue for a better alignment and understanding of possible updates about protocols (methodology), forms, data collection’s evaluation moment, knowledge sharing, experiences and agreement redefinitions and appointments”, Virgínia says.

Fire prevention was also among the topics at the meeting. The team carried out an expedition with the fire brigade from NGI Novo Airão. “As an effect of the climate changes in the last few years, the Amazon has presented a greater susceptibility to fire for the rain decreasing during this dry time, especially in lowland forests, riplet forests and igapós”, Virgínia explains. During the activity, an instruction focusing on building firebreaks around the plantation swiddens, at the moment of the fire cleaning, was made, remembering the agreed rules on the handling plans of the Resex Rio Unini and Jaú’s National Park’s terms of commitment.

About MPB

The activity is part of the partnership between IPÊ and ICMBio - Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, through the National Program of Biodiversity Monitoring (MONITORA - Programa Nacional de Monitoramento da Biodiversidade) and the National Center of Research and Conservation of the Amazonian Biodiversity (CEPAM - Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação da Biodiversidade Amazônica).

The initiative is an activity from the project  MPB - Monitoramento Participativo da Biodiversidade em Unidades de Conservação na Amazônia, as in Biodiversity Participative Program in Conservation Unities in Amazon, developed by IPÊ in partnership with ICMBio, and support  from Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, USAID and ARPA.