Agrarian Development launches National Productive Forests Program to recover degraded areas in the Amazon
The federal government launched the iinitiative that directs R$426 million to the recovery of degraded areas and the generation of sustainable income for rural communities in the Amazon.
“The Productive Forests Program changes the economic logic of the Amazon: it is now more profitable to recover the forest than to cut it down.”, said the minister (Agrarian Development).
The project encourages the use of agroforestry systems, a model that combines the cultivation of trees with crops and livestock, and will be one of the main actions presented by Brazil at the .
“Productive forests are not monocultures. They are consortiums of plants that generate food, income and environmental balance”said Teixeira during an interview at the ministry’s headquarters in Brasília. “The program strikes a balance between environmental, social and economic sustainability. It is an equation that is sustainable.”
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The objective is to restore altered areas while promoting the production of food and products such as cocoa, açaí, cupuaçu and passion fruit, producing income for family farmers.
Short-cycle crops are also encouraged, such as corn, beans, pumpkin and watermelon, which guarantee immediate economic returns to families while forest regeneration is carried out.
The initiative is aligned with the goals of the (National Native Vegetation Recovery Plan), which estimates the restoration of 12 million hectares in the country, and the actions of the Climate Plan – Mitigation, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For the ministry’s Secretary of Land Governance, Moisés Savian, the project “responds to the country’s social, economic and environmental challenges, forming the tripod of sustainable development”.
