Amazon Day: Emater projects restore green areas throughout Pará

This Friday, Amazon Day, September 5, dawned in the São José do Anapolina community, in Santa Maria do Pará, in the Guamá region, in northeastern Pará, with two farmers preparing to reforest areas of their properties, based on guidance from the local office of the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of Pará (Emater).

Antônio Araújo, 42, will plant timber on about one hectare by the Furo Lindo river, at Sítio São Pedro: "Andiroba, ipê, buriti." Whatever I have, I will throw in there. I think bringing back the forest is a good idea because nature is the basis of work in the field," he says.

Meanwhile, João Luiz Florêncio, 57, wants to restore three hectares of Sítio Ebenézer with açaí, cupuaçu, and mahogany, among other species. "It's a space that was already deforested when I bought the land. I think that by diversifying and planting the right plants, it will be very useful for food and for commercialization," he considers.

Both families benefit from an environmental goal created by Emater. The document Ater (Technical Assistance and Rural Extension) Public for Climate Justice in the Amazon for Cop-30 was launched by Emater in March, in alignment with the State Plan Amazon Now (PEAA) and the Integrated Action Program for Sustainable Territories (PTS). Among various actions, it includes the forecast of, by the end of the year, at least 600 Recovery Plans for Degraded and Altered Areas (Pradas) on small and medium properties historically harmed by predatory activities, in the 144 municipalities of Pará.

In Santa Maria, three pradas have already been completed and 12 are underway. "The plan is to serve a total of 41 properties. First, we hold meetings with those interested, clarifying the public policy.

The pradas, says Emater, aim to support farmers in complying with environmental legislation, with the regularization of environmental liabilities in legal reserve areas [arls], permanent preservation areas [apps], and restricted use areas [aurs] identified through the cars [rural environmental registrations] issued by Emater," explains the interim head of the local Emater office in Santa Maria, Elcyley Dias, an agricultural technician.

Environment

The preparation of the Pradas by Emater is based on geotechnologies and socioeconomic analysis to indicate possibilities for both natural regeneration, with calculated area separation, a process that can take decades, and the implementation of agroforestry systems (safs), with integrated planting of fruit trees and timber species, an initiative that should yield harvests in three to five years.

The Operations Coordination (Coper) of Emater indicates that the focus of this emblematic 2025 in ecological significance is, in partnership with the State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainability (Semas), the reforestation of the Amazon biome along with the production of foods native to the region's customs, such as açaí.

The strategy raises awareness about adapting practices such as burning and clearing and can be associated with the application of rural credit from the National School Feeding Program (Pronaf), before the Bank of the Amazon (Basa) and the Bank of Brazil (BB).

According to Emater's operations coordinator, environmental engineer Camila Salim, who holds a postgraduate degree in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development in the Amazon and a master's degree in Environmental Sciences, forest restoration and combating deforestation are "urgent priorities" and count on the institutional leadership of Emater and the existential leadership of rural communities.

"Restoring is giving back life, ensuring clean water, conserving species, ensuring the dignity of communities. Forest populations have lived there for centuries, in harmony, and their knowledge and practices: they are populations that teach a lot about sustainability. Protecting the Amazon is protecting ourselves. The Amazon is important for the entire planet," says Camila Salim.