Community members of the private natural heritage reserve (RPPN) Acurizal, in the Serra do Amolar, will be responsible for helping reforest the Pantanal by producing native seedlings from the region. Residents will be trained by the IHP (Instituto Homem Pantaneiro, Pantanal Man Institute).

The IHP team, together with the team from Restaura – Consultoria Ambiental (Restaura Environmental Consulting), carried out training with the staff who live at RPPN Acurizal to identify plant species and collect seeds.

During the training, biologists Letícia Koutchin Reis and Maria Luciana Zequim, from Restaura, taught the team how to identify important species from the region, when they produce fruits and seeds, how seed collection should be carried out, and how the seeds should be stored until planting.

In the coming months, training sessions with the community are planned, which will help with seedling production.

Seedling production will take place in the nursery donated by actress Thaila Ayala and will be used to restore 30 hectares of areas affected by the 2020 fires in the Serra do Amolar, which had about 97% of its area burned.

“It’s very rewarding to see green back in the Pantanal. And seeing the nursery we built being used to contribute to this process is even more rewarding. The responsibility of caring for the Pantanal belongs to each of us, and small actions can have fantastic results,” says the actress.

Restoring the Pantanal

The community training actions and area restoration are part of the project “Mitigação dos efeitos dos incêndios de 2020 e prevenção contra novos incêndios na Serra do Amolar, Pantanal” (Mitigating the Effects of the 2020 Fires and Preventing New Fires in the Serra do Amolar, Pantanal), approved under the Projeto Estratégias de Conservação, Restauração e Manejo para a biodiversidade da Caatinga, Pampa e Pantanal (GEF Terrestre) (Conservation, Restoration and Management Strategies for the Biodiversity of the Caatinga, Pampa and Pantanal), through the FunBio (Fundo Brasileiro para a Biodiversidade, Brazilian Biodiversity Fund) Call for Projects 01/2021.

Biologist and IHP technical coordinator Angélica Guerra explains that this project is the first to develop native vegetation restoration actions in the Serra do Amolar. It is also the first to involve the community in seed collection and seedling production. To restore these areas, it is essential to have local seedling production, with seed collection from species native to the region itself.

Seedling donation

Last month, the IHP received a donation of 3,000 aroeira seedlings to be used in the project. The donation was made by the owner of Fazenda Princesinha, Orlando Moreira Jacques, from Bonito.

The seedlings traveled from Bonito to Corumbá, where they stayed for a week at the Moinho Cultural headquarters, being cared for by participants, before being sent by boat to the Serra do Amolar, about 181 km from Corumbá.

The seedlings are expected to remain in the nursery until October, when the rainy season begins and planting for area restoration will start.