Earning a Living While Preserving in Brazil

The stance of defending growth for the sake of growth in Brazil
has already ravaged 94% of the Atlantic Rain Forest and 18% of
the Amazon Forest and decimated indigenous cultures. A new
program financed by the UN is trying to change this mentality by
recruiting communities to profit through sustainable development.

Juliana Cézar Nunes

In the last ten years the Brazilian cerrado (savanna) has obtained a new lease on life. Through a project implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), traditional communities in the region have begun to use the biome to extract their own sources of income and sustainable development.

The project encompasses, for example, incentives for the breeding of wild animals, honey production, and the utilization of fruit, nuts, fish, and flowers.

Each year the PNUD distributes around US$ 500 thousand for training and financing the efforts of these savanna communities. To date 127 projects have received resources derived from donations to the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

"It is still an experimental project, but with excellent results," assures Donald Sawyer, coordinator of the UNDP's Small Projects Program.

The project showcases communities such as the one in which Luceli Moraes Pio, a 41 year-old descendant of slaves, lives. Her grandmother taught her the healing powers of typical savanna plants. Among them, the baru (tonka bean), the jatobá (courbaril locust) and the ipê roxo (purple tecoma).

In the community of Cedro, in the municipality of Minérios, Minas Gerais, medicinal plants have been part of local tradition for at least 150 years. "But only with the support of the UNDP project in the last five years were we able to take this tradition outside," Pio recounts.

The Cedro community produces as many as 500 units of syrup, dye, and pills. The sales don't just yield income, directly or indirectly, for the 150 inhabitants. With the returns from medicinal plants, the community has already built a library and a school.

The population has also gained access to extension courses at nearby university centers. Pio has already participated in twenty such courses. "My next goal is to enter the Faculty of Biology," she reveals.

For the 33 year-old Mato Grosso do Sul resident, Rosana Sampaio, attending university does not represent a personal goal. It is a dream she intends to give her children. Sampaio lives in the Andalucia settlement in the municipality of Nioaque, Mato Grosso do Sul, and works at handcrafts and weaving.

Her raw materials: souari nut, courbaril locust, and tonka bean trees, rice husks, and banana stalks. To transform this material into cloaks, scarves, and mats, the community received US$ 9.5 thousand (R$ 30 thousand) from the UNDP in a single year. The money is used to finance production and train the residents to practice sustainable extractive activities.

"In order not to degrade, we took various courses. We learned that we can't remove all that nature offers. The fauna and the proliferation of various species depend on it," teaches the weaver, who is now engaged in a new challenge: rural tourism.

"Nowadays, a lot of people here already make a point of maintaining the tonka bean tree, for example, in the middle of their pastures. The community realized that it can receive many benefits from preserving nature."

Among the benefits is the Center of Production, Training, and Research, built by the community in partnership with the non-governmental organization Ecology and Action (Ecoa), responsible for administering the project in the region.

"In addition to the knowledge, we have already achieved various individual victories with weaving," Sampaio commemorates. "Many women bought washing machines and cows. They were also able to improve their appearance, paying a dentist to take care of their teeth."

Key to Development

Ethical sustainability. For the Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, this is the key word for sustainable development in Brazil and the world. The first speaker to address the International Conference on Environmental Auditing, June 3, in Brasília, the Minister stressed the importance of creating a new cycle of civilization in which the relationship between developed and developing countries is based on respect for the use of biodiversity.

According to Silva, the world continues to suffer from a substantial deficit in the implementation of environmental policies capable of ensuring to future generations the natural resources of the present. "Reconciling environmental, social, and economic sustainability is still a big challenge," the Minister affirmed, pointing out that environmental auditing can be an effective tool for sustainable development.

She emphasized that Brazil has a great responsibility in this new process, since it possesses 11 percent of available fresh water supplies, 20 percent of the planet's extant species, and the world's largest tropical forest.

But to discharge its responsibilities, according to the Minister, it is essential for a new culture to be solidified, in which the act of obeying the law represents a spontaneous desire linked to environmental awareness.

As a result, Silva stated that the Brazilian government is in favor of a new development path structured around four basic guidelines: sustainable growth, greater social participation, strengthening of the national environmental system, and implementation of an integrated environmental policy. She cited as an example the Program to Combat Deforestation in the Amazon, which unites 13 Ministries in integrated activities.

According to the Minister, the logic of growth for the sake of growth in Brazil has already ravaged 94 percent of the Atlantic Rain Forest and 18 percent of the Amazon Forest and decimated various indigenous cultures. "The option of not doing things correctly is very costly," she affirmed, underscoring that the challenge of development with sustainability is a task for all of society, not just the leaders.

The contribution of external control to sustainable development is the main theme of the Conference, which began on June 2^nd. According to Silva, environmental auditing can confirm whether companies are really complying with environmental legislation and whether governments are enforcing the laws and heeding the environmental variable in their investments. "Without a doubt this type of tool is an effective instrument for sustainable development."

Juliana Cézar Nunes works for Agência Brasil (AB), the official press agency of the Brazilian government. Comments are welcome at lia@radiobras.gov.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by David Silberstein.