Emater-MG environmental project has already distributed 12 thousand native plant seedlings

An initiative by the Minas Gerais Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company (Emater-MG), in the municipality of Liberdade, south of the state, has been putting into practice an environmental education agenda since 2015. The public company's initiative, which is linked to State Secretariat for Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Seapa), has contributed to the training of primary and secondary school students, through actions that encourage care and protection of the municipality's environment, in urban and rural areas. It has also helped producers and family farmers who wish to recover degraded areas and springs on their properties, with the distribution of seedlings of plants native to the region and the Atlantic Forest.  

In these six years of existence, the project has carried out numerous practical stages of environmental education, with the support and partnerships of different groups and institutions in local society, including the Frei José Wulff State School and the Professor José Estevão Municipal School, in addition to the Social Assistance Reference (CRAS).

With the participation of students from the two public schools, two springs in the rural communities of Mato Virgem and Vargem da Imagem were revitalized. The focus was on improving the water supply for 122 local residents. At CRAS, a garden was set up, with a roof and overhead irrigation, so that students could plant seeds of native species and take care of the seedlings formed.

The agricultural extensionist from the local Emater-MG office, in Liberdade, and also author of the project, André Luiz Rezende, explains that the seedlings, grown in the small garden, were planted not only around the springs, but also in a city square and on city hall land, which he calls an institutional area (space transferred to the city hall, to compensate for the degradation caused by the construction of an avenue, during a subdivision). All planting was carried out by students before the pandemic, between 2018 and 2019.

Motivation and logo

“This project motivated me a lot. The students marched through the city streets to introduce it to the population and draw attention to environmental preservation. They cleaned the square and planted 350 three-color ipe seedlings, which were donated by two companies. They also participated in the afforestation of the institutional area, which covers 2 thousand square meters”, explains the Emater technician.

Professor Najara Christiane de Carvalho, who at the time taught at two public schools, the state and the municipal, participated in the entire process and is a witness to the motivation that encouraged students and teachers at the time.

“The project was in three stages. We work on the topic within the classrooms; We took the 6th grade students to plant crops in the mountains, on the edge of the springs. In another stage, we mobilized the 7th, 8th, 9th and high school classes to prepare the seeds, in the garden”, he reports.

According to the teacher, each person prepared the land and planted a seed at the beginning of the year. At the end of the following year, students from both schools planted the seedlings in a city square. “It took two years of work and they realized the importance of trees and springs,” she reported.

Main agents of the local Emater-MG project, the students participated collectively in all actions and decisions of the initiative, including the promotion of a drawing competition to choose the logo for the work, carried out between students from both schools. The then 2nd year high school student, Maria Carolina da Silva Vita, from Frei José Wulff State School, was the winner of the race. She produced a map of the city, crossed by rivers, as if they were veins surrounded by trees.

In the opinion of the young woman, now 17 years old, Liberdade Semper Verde is a project that made the students happy, not least due to the playful nature of the activities. “It was an interesting project because it is very rare within public schools for us to have such direct contact with nature, with the dynamics of the natural. It's more of a theoretical class, full of things. I think it was something that brought the theoretical into practice, into the visible,” she argued.

André Luiz remembers that this stage of the project with the students still needs to be completed with a “golden key”, with the production of a documentary about the municipality’s fauna and flora. The idea, which was also discussed with school students, proposes a film to record the results of the work and present it to parents. However, with the arrival of Covid-19, the proposal was suspended, according to the extension officer. “Unfortunately, with the pandemic, there is no way. How can we take students into the field to film native trees and preserved spring areas?” he asks.

Donation of seedlings

Liberdade Semper Verde is also a project aimed at helping family farmers and other producers concerned about preserving the springs that supply their rural properties. Therefore, one of the project's actions is also to distribute free seedling kits of native plants to this public, such as jequitibá, ipê, guava, araçaeiro, ingazeiro, annatto, soldier's soap, antwood and even brazilwood.

According to André Luiz, the project has so far distributed 12 thousand seedlings, benefiting around 300 people, including producers and rural residents. “About two or three years ago there was a huge drop in water in the springs, which is why these seedlings are to be made available to the producer. He can go there (at the CRAS garden) and get the kit with 25 to 30 seedlings. They take it for free and plant it in the springs,” he says.  

For the Emater-MG extensionist, the recovery of the springs was the most important action of the project, as it is making it possible to supply rural properties and, therefore, making the lives of local residents and the activities carried out in the places viable. “The spring is important for everything. Think carefully about how many producers are along the streams, fed by these springs. There are many producers who depend on them to supply their homes and for their activities such as animal husbandry”, he highlights.

Producer Rone Araújo was one of the first to benefit from the Liberdade Semper Verde Project. Thanks to the project, he was able to reforest and recover part of the riparian forest of a stream that passes through his property. Owner of a farm where he raises dairy cattle, Rone obtained the seedlings that were planted on the banks of this watercourse, which also bathes neighboring lands. He says that his site also has an eight-hectare native forest, where the source of the stream is located, which flows into the Rio Grande.

“I planted the seedlings and most of them grew. They look beautiful, especially the plants from here in the region, such as aroeira and ingá. My father also received seedlings and planted them on the bank of the Turvo River, which also flows into the Rio Grande. At the time, the bank there didn't have a tree. Everything went well with him. Now the plants have grown and formed a beautiful forest,” he says. For Rone Araújo, this is a project that cannot end. “It should be permanent. Helped me a lot. I managed to redo an entire area,” she celebrates.

Rural profile

The Emater-MG de Liberdade office has an annual target of serving 386 family farmers, with the most diverse demands, but it serves much more, according to extension worker André Luiz. “In practice, the service is much greater. In 2020, we served 1.300 producers with repetition and 400 without repetition,” he says.

According to him, the predominant activity in the municipality is dairy farming, with an estimated production of between 42 and 50 thousand liters of milk per day, which are sold to the city's dairies. Meat cattle farming also plays a prominent role, being the second activity in rural areas. Next comes the cultivation of corn for silage and grain and the planting of eucalyptus, which occupies an area of ​​1.260 hectares on the municipality's land.