Becoming a Caatinga Warrior
Thursday and Friday the project team visited the Caatinga reserve at Crateús (385 km = 5 hour drive from Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará.)We visited the local office of Associação Caatinga, met communities and beneficiaries and had a fist hand experience of the fantastic work that the Associacao is doing.
Associação
Caatinga
is a non-profit, non-governmental organization recognized under Brazilian law
as a Civil Society Organization of Public
Interest and included in the Brazilian National Registry of
Environmental Entities. Its mission is to conserve the biodiversity of the
Caatinga. The Associação Caatinga’s work focuses on the creation and management
of protected areas and promotion of research, education and capacity building.
Through
its work the Associação Caatinga seeks to build a network of partners in an
effort to mobilize a wide spectrum of individuals and institutions interested
in the conservation of the biodiversity of the Caatinga, including academic
institutions, research, extension and finance agencies, rural property owners
and family farmers, business people, third sector organizations and government
institutions.The Associação Caatinga is becoming a model for the conservation
of the Caatinga through the dissemination of successful initiatives and
exemplary practices. (source: http://www.acaatinga.org.br/english/index.php/2011/the-associacao-caatinga/)
Maintained
by the Association Caatinga, the Reserva Natural Serra das Almas has an
area of 6,146 hectares located in the hinterland of Cratéus / CE which houses a
significant sample of the biodiversity of the Caatinga, with approximately 690
species of animals and plants. On-site activities are conservation,
scientific research, school visits, environmental education and interpretation,
and sustainable development in the surrounding communities combining
environmental protection with income generation and improved quality of life in
the outback.
The
work done in the Reserve consists of several projects of conservation actions
of Caatinga biome that covers 90% of Ceará state and has 45% of its original
area deforested. Unique to Brazil, the Caatinga is one of the most populated
and biologically diverse semi-arid regions in the world. It occurs in the
Northeast region of Brazil and covers 10% of the national territory. Since the
onset of colonization, this ecosystem has been drastically altered by human
intervention and today more than 45% of its area is deforested making it a
vulnerable biome particularly susceptible to desertification.
The
Caatinga’s fauna suffers from hunting and human occupation.
As
a result, many species are extinct and others, such as the
Three-banded-Armadillo, Lesser Anteater, Puma and Araripe Manakin are under
threat. Despite the natural fragility of this ecosystem, a large number of
species exist that are unique to the Caatinga. According to data from the
Caatinga Biosphere Reserve (2008), 148 species of mammals, 348 of birds, 154 of
reptiles and amphibians, 185 of fish and 5,344 species of flora have been
registered for the Caatinga.(see: http://www.acaatinga.org.br/english/index.php/the-caatinga-biome/)
We spent the night at the Serra das
Almas Nature Reserve's visitor center, 700 meters above sea level, located 50
kilometers from Crateús . We reached the center after an hour drive. The
serpentine road offers breathtaking landscape and fresh mountain air, as we
reach gradually higher.
The visitor's center's building which
houses school groups as well, works with
the technologies introduced by the Associacao in the region not only in their
buildings but also to communities living in the area: Solar power (conversion
of sunlight into electricity) , rainwater harvesting system (rain gathered for
watering, washing) to keep minimal impact on the environment .
Friday started with an early morning
walk on the reserve’s Monkey trail : the hiking trail offers direct contact
with the nature , the forest around the trail is called “Eyelashes forest”;
which helps explaining the role and
importance of vegetation and trees in the water reservation and balance. The
monkeys were sleepy and didn’t show, but their traces were visible by the half
eaten mango fruits on the ground.
The end of the trail our project team
was “baptized “ as Caatinga Worrior by the creek - an
honor we do our best to merit!!
Our special day continued by visiting
one of the community school’s activity on the Day Of Trees - in cooperation and
with the help of the Association the 3rd graders planted their own
trees !
We continued our day in the Training
Center of the RNSA.
The
Serra das Almas Nature Reserve adresses the challenge of working together with
neighboring communities to change behavior and values and minimize threats to
the preservation of the reserve that result from the region’s social, economic
and cultural context and embark on a search for solutions to the problems faced
by the local population. These actions contribute to the sustainable
development of the surrounding area and the biome as a whole (see: http://www.acaatinga.org.br/english/index.php/our-initiatives/actions/).
In the training centre the AC offers different technologies and trainings to
neighbouring communities. 
Approximately
1,700 families live in the surrounding area. The majority of these
families live in the municipality of Crateús, state of Ceará in the districts
Tucuns, Queimadas, Poty and Ibiapaba. A small portion of the population lives
in the district of Jatobá in the municipality of Buriti dos Montes in the state
of Piauí.
The
Associação Caatinga promote the involvement of neighboring communities in the
development of Eco development plans aimed at promoting environmental
protection and income generation in poorer communities. With this objective in
mind, the Integrated Model for the Conservation of the Caatinga was
developed and Projects were implemented together with the community that sought
to identify productive activities that could generate opportunities and
improvements in the quality of life of the local community.
Activities
developed together with the community include: construction of water tanks,
honey production from native bees, production of soaps and natural essences
from plants that occur in the Caatinga, handicrafts, and planting of saplings
of native tree species in degraded areas. (see:
http://www.acaatinga.org.br/english/index.php/our-initiatives/the-serra-das-almas-nature-reserve/communities-in-the-surrounding-area)
The
Caatinga is favorable to native beekeeping that, besides producing one of the
tastiest and sought after types of honey in the world, are critical in the pollination
of native plants.
In the Honey Production center ,
saw a bee community from close - these bees don’t sting - and tasted the finest honey I ever come across
!
Our day before heading back to
Fortaleza had one more surprise to come: the project team got the chance to
plant their own trees! Mine is called Sabia and will have beautiful fluffy
white flowers, when it grows up.
Fantastic trip, great people , and an
enriching experience !
