Panel discusses financial viability of Legal Reserve recovery models with Araucária

A panel of experts discussed and defined technical coefficients for the forest recovery models used in the Araucária Conservation Project. The project, which encourages the restoration of degraded areas on rural properties, works with three models based on the cultivation of araucaria with native species of this forest type, such as yerba mate and bracatinga, in addition to the breeding of stingless bees.

The three models were discussed and evaluated during the panel, which collected revenues and costs from various points involved in the implementation and maintenance of the areas, such as inputs (seedlings, fertilizers, cultural treatments), labor demand ( working hours for the various activities involved), protective equipment, among others. Based on this information, it will be possible to carry out financial analysis and develop scenarios for the three models and adapt their implementation to the reality of rural producers.

“The Araucária Conservation Project has already implemented 12 Technological Reference Units (URTs) on rural properties in the Center-South of Paraná, using these three proposed models for recovering legal reserves. Now, the discussion of coefficients and the financial analysis of their viability will support adjustments and refinements in the models, so that other producers can be inspired by these areas and have an idea of ​​their technical and financial viability”, analyzes Ives Goulart, from Embrapa Florestas, responsible for the implementation of URTs.

Participating in the panel, which took place on 14 and 15/07, were representatives from IDR Paraná, Instituto Água e Terra (IAT) and the Iguaçu Valley Yerba Mate Management Council (Cogemate). According to Embrapa Florestas researcher Sergio Ricardo Silva, project coordinator, “experts from outside Embrapa were invited to form part of a Technical Working Group, with the aim of complementing the knowledge of Embrapa Florestas researchers and analysts. Therefore, the importance of the work is to demonstrate that it is possible to reconcile an environmental service of recovery or implementation of a Legal Reserve with income generation for farmers, especially for those inserted in the context of family farming".

According to researcher Marcelo Francia Arco-Verde, from Embrapa Florestas, who led the panel, “the planning of the production system and its financial analysis are fundamental requirements for the success of the venture. As we are working with forest species, which have a longer turnaround time, understanding the model designs, technical and financial coefficients involved brings greater security to the producer. In this case, we will have environmental benefits, with the recovery of the legal reserve, but also income generation for producers when well planned”.

Under the New Forest Code, producers must recover Legal Reserve (RL) and Permanent Preservation (APP) areas on their properties, but there is a lack of references on production systems that combine production/income generation and conservation. The Project, then, proposes to establish ways on how to do this in a technically adequate way, conserving the forest and, at the same time, surveying implementation costs and possibilities for generating income.

For Margit Hauer, from the Water and Land Institute, rural producers have commitments to comply with the Forest Code with the implementation of the “Environmental Regularization Plan” (PRA), and it is “interesting to discuss how to do this so that, when the requirement comes into effect , we already have tools and information for producers to not only abandon the area, but to plant more appropriately and see the forest as an economic activity, as well as an environmental one”.

This concern in combining conservation and income is corroborated by Nei Kukla, president of the Management Council of Erva-mate do Alto Iguaçu, who reinforces that “the objective of everyone involved, from the different segments, is to bring something concrete to the producer, so that he be able to take advantage of these areas for preservation and source of income. It is something well thought out, which will in fact bring another option to rural properties, especially family farming”.

IDR Paraná is a partner in the implementation of URTs, with the selection of producers to install the Units and monitoring. The idea is to serve as a model for producers in each region and, for this, the analysis of technical and financial coefficients is important, such as yerba mate, which is one of the components of income generation.

According to Jonas Bianchin, extension technician at IDR Paraná, “discussing the production costs of the proposed systems is important to evaluate and pass on to the producer approximate values ​​that match their reality. It is good for us to put the most accurate costs possible, because the producer will be investing and needs to be sure to know how much he will invest and how much return he will have on his herbage, whether in shaded systems, or in bracatinga and araucaria”.

The Araucária Conservation Project

The Araucária Conservation Project, a partnership between Embrapa Florestas, IDR Paraná and Gralha Azul Transmission System, began in 2020 with the aim of promoting the planting of Araucaria, as well as structuring a genetic bank for the conservation of the species in the state of Paraná.