The practice favors the regeneration of areas impacted by tailings and influences the entire biome, the quality of fauna, flora and water
Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) have important functions for the conservation of the environment and can directly impact our quality of life. They help protect rivers and control watercourse pollution. In addition, they help to prevent torrents, floods and landslides, for example.
According to Law 12,651/12, all rural properties in the country are required to complete the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). The Registry is an electronic record whose purpose is to integrate environmental information regarding the status of PPAs in Legal Reserve areas, thus composing a database for control, monitoring, environmental and economic planning and combating deforestation. By carrying out the CAR and regularizing their property, the rural producer commits to preserve or recover the vegetation in the PPA present in the space.
In the case of rural producers in Mariana, Barra Longa, Rio Doce and Santa Cruz do Escalvado affected by the collapse of the Fundão dam who joined the Socio-Economic and Environmental Adequacy Plan (Pasea), the Renova Foundation supports the regularization of properties, including restoration forestry in APPs. The supervision is carried out by the competent bodies. Therefore, people with properties that are in PPAs are directly responsible for taking care of these areas.
The planting of seedlings and the fencing of PPAs, among other actions, form the initial stage of the forest restoration process. Today, this work is going through a moment in which the cooperation of rural producers is essential for the seedlings to develop as expected. Therefore, cattle and other animals must not enter or remain in the fenced areas. Cattle and horses can step on, break and eat the seedlings, bringing this set of actions back to the initial stage.
Understand the impacts
To illustrate, in order to recover an area of 1 hectare, which is equivalent to about a football field, approximately 1,112 seedlings are planted during the rainy season, which is the most favorable for its development. Only in the next rainy season, a year later, it is possible to evaluate the evolution to define the next actions: enrich the site with new species or plant the initial seedlings again. It is expected that about 10% to 20% of the seedlings do not develop.
When cattle is present in the PPA, this rate exceeds 50% and may reach 100%. This is equivalent to a loss of over 500 seedlings per hectare. For them to be replanted, it is necessary to wait for the next rainy season, which takes another year.