Community involvement of traditional peoples is transforming the environmental conditions of the mangroves in Guanabara Bay. Through solid waste cleanup projects, awareness campaigns for fishermen and crabbers, and recovery of local fauna and flora, the landscape is being restored in various surrounding municipalities.
In January and February, actions from the Ecological Walks Project by the non-governmental organization Guardians of the Sea collected 4.5 tons of waste in Magé. Artisanal fishermen, crabbers, teenagers, and children from the Suruí community and neighboring areas, in the inner confines of Guanabara Bay, are the direct beneficiaries.
In addition to mangrove cleanup, Ecological Walks develops the ecoclub program. This activity involves Payment for Environmental Services (PES) through the Blue Currency, Mangal – an innovative social technology. Over two years and two months, the project will involve schools, community spaces, and residents along the Suruí River, in Magé, in the Baixada Fluminense.
Axes
For the president of Guardians of the Sea, Pedro Belga, the Ecological Walks project has unique characteristics and goes beyond just collecting trash from mangroves and the sea. The environmentalist highlighted the importance of environmental education efforts along both banks of the Suruí River, where resident communities will be encouraged to collect their post-consumer solid waste, not only stopping improper disposal but also gathering items that can be recycled.
Thus, families, children, and youth will be encouraged to exchange these solid wastes for Mangal coins, which can then be exchanged for items at a bazaar.
Financial Return
Payment for environmental services, according to Belga, was adopted by Guardians of the Sea in 2001, in its first action in Guanabara Bay, in the Ilha de Itaoca community.
“From then on, we understood the importance of how advantageous it is to hire these communities for cleanup.”
According to him, by including the Payment for Environmental Services clause, the communities become sensitized and turn into environmental agents. They then realize that cleanup leads to greater fish and crab production and better mangrove quality.
The environmentalist noted that mangrove cleanup is already an expected activity, especially by crabbers due to the closed season, which in Rio de Janeiro runs from October 1 to November 30. During this period, the collection, transport, and sale of the uçá crab are prohibited. “This aid payment, which is compensation for the environmental services provided by the community, is extremely important.”
Rafael dos Santos, president of the Association of Crabbers and Friends of the Mangroves of Magé, highlighted that Community-Based Tourism, another economic activity developed by residents, is also influenced by solid waste cleanup. “A cleaner river and mangrove landscape attract visitors to the region.”
LimpaOca
The project will also expand Operation LimpaOca, according to coordinator Rodrigo Gaião. Since the first mangrove cleanup actions in the Guapimirim Environmental Protection Area (APA), in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region, in 2012, the initiative has already collected more than 100 tons of waste. In Ecological Walks, for the first time, it will extend from the mouth to the source of the Suruí River.
Gaião reported that among the collected waste, there are sofas, television picture tubes, electronic waste, whole pieces of wood like doors, toys, but although the types of waste have changed, plastic items or plastic derivatives are always the most frequent.
“[Among the waste], plastic dominates, whether in the form of PET bottles or other types of containers and plastic bags in absurd quantities. Depending on the time it spent in the mangrove, there is a large amount of fragments.”
Mangrove cleanup projects around the Guapimirim Environmental Protection Area began in 2000, after the rupture of a Petrobras pipeline connecting the Duque de Caxias Refinery (Reduc) to the Ilha d’Água terminal, on Governador Island, in Rio’s North Zone. Due to the spill, Petrobras paid a R$ 35 million fine to the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and invested R$ 15 million in bay revitalization.
Since then, the issue has advanced to the start of cleanup operations in projects by the NGO Guardians of the Sea, such as From Sea to Mangrove, Guanabara Bay Cleanup Day, Sou do Mangue, Guanabara Verde, LimpaOca, and Uçá.
“It’s not a project that came out of nowhere. On the contrary, it was built with big steps by them, and this values them not only in the territory but in quality of life,” he observed. “Many fishermen are already aware that their own struggle is not in vain.”
Source: Agência Brasil