Paraná climbers Waldemar Niclevicz, 59, the first Brazilian to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1995, is expected to return to the top of the mountain soon, 30 years after that first expedition. The goal now, he says, is to draw attention to the urgency of ecological restoration.
The idea is to bring to the top of the mountain a flag with the design of an araucaria, a tree symbol of Paraná, and also “symbol of resistance and threatened nature,” he adds.
Less than five years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Niclevicz bought an area of 116 hectares in the rural region of Campo Largo, a city in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, and has since been working to recover the site, planting araucaria seedlings.
“It was a degraded area, but it was abandoned since the 1980s, so it had some natural regeneration. But it was originally a forest with Araucaria, associated with the Atlantic Forest biome. And it is a species that was practically decimated in Brazil in the last 100 years. Today has almost nothing,” he explains.
The site is glued to the APA (Environmental Protection Area) of Escarpa De Devoniava, the largest conservation unit of Paraná, and a part of the property bought by it was transformed into RPPN (Private Natural Heritage Reserve), through a decree published in November 2024 by IAT (Water and Earth Institute), the Government of Paraná.
Paraná today has 334 particular reserves of the type, totaling 55,541.92 hectares of preserved native vegetation.
Niclevicz RPPN, named after the climber, has 34 hectares and gained an inauguration act on Wednesday (12). Among the guests was the physiotherapist and businesswoman Flávia Arantes, daughter of Pelé.
In 1995, the Brazilian flag aired by Niclevicz when he reached the top of Everest had been given by the king of football, killed in 2022 at the age of 82. This Wednesday, the flag with Araucaria, which will still be taken to Nepal, was handed over to the climber by the hands of Flávia.
At the inauguration, 30 seedlings were planted to mark the 30th anniversary of the first Brazilian expedition to Everest. In total, there are already more than 600 araucarias planted in the space, but Niclevicz seeks partners and donors to reach 2,000.
They are not common seedlings. The climber explains that he has used grafted, more expensive seedlings – around R $ 150 each – to accelerate the tree development process. “They are clones of a selected matrix, ie special seedlings, without disease, productive, resistant. But care for planting and management is also important for her to grow healthy,” he explains.
The first change grafted on site three years ago and a month, has the first pine cone. “It is early. While an araucaria takes 15 years to release the first flower, the grafted are already dropping flower from the third year,” says Niclevicz.
“Nature cannot wait. We cannot afford to leave the restoration for tomorrow. We have to do it today. Our own survival is at risk with world environmental imbalance,” he says.
The climber also tries to attract partners who can contribute to the maintenance of the space. The idea is to receive students weekly, especially from high school, for environmental education classes. Since the purchase of the area, the visits already happen sporadically.
“Our purpose here is not to take a piece of land, plant araucaria and take care of it as if it were our garden. Our purpose is to work on environmental education,” he says.
The new expedition to Everest also depends on sponsorship, but Niclevicz says most of the value of the trip has already been obtained. He will climb the highest mountain in the world with climber Pedro Hauck. The total cost of the endeavor is estimated at $ 160,000 (about $ 919,000) for the pair.
Donors so far are a supplement company, a German institute and Sanepar (Paraná Sanitation Company). A fourth donor should be confirmed soon.
The match for Nepal is scheduled for March 26, and the expedition should last until May 30. Hauck will be on Everest’s summit for the first time. Already Niclevicz went five times to the mountain – of them to the summit (in 1995 and 2005). 30 years ago, his climbing companion was Mozart Catão, killed in Accágua in 1998.
At 59 years old on Wednesday, Niclevicz says he has never stopped climbing and is ready for the new Everest contract.
“I’ve been climbing for 37 years. I just finished a project climbing all the largest mountains of European Alps, 82 mountains over 4,000 meters. I’m very well physically,” he says.
For him, the challenge will be to face the “line of people” at Everest. “Today is a mountain that does not attract so much the professional climbers because there is massive by tourism. This will be a challenge for me. I met Everest in the 1990s. In 1991, only 342 people in the world had arrived up there. Today we already have more than 10,000 people.
Niclevicz also believes that he will find another mountain, “more dangerous” than 30 years ago. “It has lost much of its glaciers. That is, Everest also suffered the effects of the global climate crisis,” he laments.
