Sustainable development around the Ibirapuitã Biological Reserve

Horus Institute and IDEAAS implement commercial plantation with native species

The project for the sustainable development around the Ibirapuita Biological Reserve, in Alegrete - RS, financed by PROBIO / Ministry of Environment, has already planted two plots for production using a mixture of twenty species native to the Seasonal Decidual Forest. The trees were planted in a rural property of the Campanha Rural University - URCAMP - and are intended to demonstrate to rural producers that native trees are viable for several uses, among them wood and fire wood. The project is building on periodic harvesting principles and on a sustainable system in which clear cutting is not used. Instead, the farmer can decide that a number of trees will be used every x years, then harvests those and plants others to replace them.

Regional studies show that the price offered for a cubic meter of noble species wood, such as cedar (Cedrela fissilis), canjerana (Cabralea canjerana), louro (Cordia trichotoma) or ipe (Tabebuia heptaphylla) can be six times higher than the regular price of pinus or eucalyptus, the species traditionally used in forest production in Brazil.

Therefore, although it is popularly said that native species grow too slow, price makes up for productivity. This popular comparison between natives and aliens only makes sense once species in the same ecological group are compared: pines and eucalypts are pioneer species, first colonizers of open areas, and their fast growth is comparable to many Brazilian pioneer species. Noble species are part of a different ecological group which refers to mature forests, that's why their growth is slower - but the quality of the wood is far higher, as well as the price. Still, there have never been selection or genetic improvement practices done for these noble species, which will sure enhance their production capacity.

The plantation projects were registered at IBAMA and at the State Secretary of Environment SEMA/Department of Forests and Protected Areas of Rio Grande do Sul, so they can receive a license for future use. Growth and market studies are being carried out in order to evaluate existing data and give producers an idea of potential revenues.

The alternative is also a benefit for restoring degraded areas which used to be forest, enhance the qualifity of the landscape for ecotourism and for not causing risk of biological invasions, second greatest cause of biodiversity loss on the planet. Besides, one of the plots is meant to eliminate an invasion of weeping grass (Eragrostis plana), an African grass, through shading.