The Municipal Plan of the Atlantic Forest (PMMA) 15. Life on the Land
Description
The Municipal Plan of the Atlantic Forest (PMMA), studies the environmental situation in Foz do Iguaçu-Brazil, located at a strategic region of triple border, that proposes measures of conservation, based on the mark of this project, picking then, priority areas to maintain and degradation areas to recover. This project indicates vectors of pression over the remaining areas and promote strategies based on environmental education, because this will maintain the actions that are destinated to the conservation and recover of the fragments of the Atlantic Forest.
The Atlantic Forest, it’s one of the most important biomes, not just in Brazil, but in the hole globe, because of his great biodiversity. The municipality of Foz do Iguaçu, lies on a region that the trees loses their leaves, to maintain the hydro balance. More than 50% of the trees loses their leaves on dry periods, on the other hand, when it’s on wet periods exists an increase of the biomass production, that can be seen by large leaves.<br />
Many of those characteristics were lost at the remaining fragments. As a result of the anthropocentrically pressure, it interrupts the ecosystem process, biotic cycles and genetic flow, leading to multiple ecosystem problems, harmful not just for the ecosystem life, but also for the future of our society and all the economic activities that lies on her. In Foz do Iguaçu – Paraná, as on the majority of the Brazilian states, the extensive agriculture, cattle breeding, the urban expansion, it’s among the primary factors causing the fragmentation and deterioration of the Forest.<br />
In the municipality were registered multiple fragments scattered in the city, in private and public areas, showing that exists a serious problem in the city, that is the lack of urban planning, that beholds the biologic needs, allowing the preservation and connecting the most relevant areas. This was the incentive to the creation of a plan to preserve the Atlantic Forest by the CODEFOZ (Economic and social development council of Foz do iguaçu) articulated with other public and private entities at the mark of the national law of the Atlantic Forest.<br />
The objective of this project is based on a model that makes de integral conservation of the ecosystem of the Atlantic Forest priority, and evaluate the actual state of conservation, from environmental indicators to the future environmental regeneration monitoring in the city.<br />
This set of indicators will be included at the PMMA, to make sure that the data after the implementation will be obtained correctly during the monitoring. To the monitoring, must be chosen previously environmental indicators that follow the evolution of the fragments over time, having as a base the actual state of conservation.
The PMMA of Foz do Iguaçu took place from an initiative of CODEFOZ. The continuation of proposition of the group was canalized in COMAFI (Municipal Council of Environment of Foz do Iguaçu).
The ONG SOS Mata Atlântica was one of the most intellectual promoters of the elaboration of municipal plans of conservation for the remaining biome in Brazil. As partners they organized workshops and guided the construction of the Itinerary Plan.
The Environmental educator Observatory Moema Viezzer, it’s a group of investigation, teaching and extension of UNILA, because the University was the principal promoter of the scientific investigation of the necessary data to elaborate the PMMA.
As the multiple studies and the work of mapping the areas in danger happened, the problems were appearing, as were the agents responsible for those questions. To name briefly, it’s the area of the militaries, located at the center of the city, it was identified as a natural inundation area, as long as it is unoccupied it’s not going to suffer mayor treats.
This remaining has a Forest and a marshy area unique, it houses more than 80% of the hydric course of a river, it was classified as a dangerous area with a high risk. As this one, areas in Vila A, Dona Amanda that are neighborhoods, areas like de hotel Carima, the wax Museum, and the adjacent I,II,III; the convention center of the city, as the area of UNILA inside the Itaipu, represents spaces unique, and retain a large amount of remaining areas, classifieds as fragile, that has no guarantee that is gone be preserved with the time.
About the Planning and management requires the development of the Article 13, where it’s the Particular Reservation of the National Patrimony (RPPN). It must contain a plan of management, that is the instrument of planning and implementing of the new unity of conservation. This Plan will determine the activities to be developed inside the protected areas, will indicate the measures of conservation and sustainable use, will propose measures to improve the environmental quality and life nearby of the RPPN, from guidelines fortified by the IAP (Environmental Institute of Parana) that will have to homologate. As another topic, this plan will have to presented at maximum 5 years from the recognition of the RPPN, under sentence of his exclusion from the state registration of the Unites of Conservation (CEUC).
This plan beholds the education as an important step for the consolidation of conscient surroundings, about the importance of this unique ecosystem, highlighting that the environmental issues should be treated inside de higher education existents in the city, from discussions about the correct destination of the trash until the correct destination of hospital trash. All of these to reach a better amount of effectiveness.
The municipality of Foz do Iguaçu with the elaboration of the PMMA, starts to being part of the cities that improves the construction of strategies e politics that allows to ampliated the opportunities e potentialize the protection of the Atlantic Forest in his territory, and in the region of the state where it is. This way, the municipality move forward with the compliance of the Federal Law n°11.428/2006 – Atlantic Forest Law – and its decree n°6.660/2008. Both, essential social conquers for the protection and management of the Biome Atlantic Forest.
The PMMA of Foz do Iguaçu it’s an instrument of territorial planification that systemize opportunities and challenges for a planning to the uses of the Atlantic Forest, contributing the implementation of the protection strategies, sustainable and conservation of the biome’s fragments. The methodologic focus considered for the elaboration of the PMMA of Foz do Iguaçu, has as a central reference the participation of multiple social segments with the insertion of the municipality and its region in all the parts of the diagnoses and the action planification.
The plan offers multiple cartographic information to the city, produced from thematic maps, definition of priority areas for conservation and recovery. And indicators to be watched allowing that the conservation be permanent.
One determining factor, was the union of a network of specialists and investigators of the Observatory Moema Viezzer, because the municipal secretary of environment suffers with a precarious situation, lack of resources and employees.
There are many mistakes with the elaboration planes, been technical, because of lack of disponible information, that in many cases, omitted problems with the environmental issues. In reality, the most significant problem it’s because the institutions and the bodies are not articulated, in multiple cases there are no reciprocity between the laws and the municipal planes. In Many laws are named the protection of nature, but there is nothing that defines what to do to conversate or recover the natural areas, that also have to be separated of those that can be destinated to other endings. This is one of the reasons that make the municipal management insufficient. Because of these, the municipal council of environment, it’s the body that approves the PMMA and it has a relevant part in all the segment of the implementation process in Foz do Iguaçu.
At this point, the diagnoses elaborated by the group of experts of the Observatory is being analyzed by a multisectoral commission to be included in other points of view in the institutions, the participatory methodology takes more time in the elaboration of the preservation law. This moment is significant because political forces of the region wants to reactivate a route that unities Foz do Iguaçu with the west of Parana, who’s the localization threatens multiple areas that are protected by the Plan.
Between the problems, there are the multiple interest in the institutions that makes the participatory process, the conflicts of ideas and interests, made that the plan took 4 years to be ready. The demotivation of the group due to the difficulty of accessing many documents to initiate the diagnoses and the lack of political support (lack of interest of the previous environment secretary). Beyond that, it was difficult to organize the team, especially in the coordination of the activities. Also appeared divergences between the leaders in the conduction of the activities and in the social role in the elaboration of the Plan.
Because of these, SOS Mata Atlântica and its network was fundamental in the process reception and orientation of the new actors, that came to the elaboration commission in 2018, because allowed the exchange of experiences with other groups of the PMMA. Furthermore, this year will be approved the final document in the municipal council.
It is pretended to work with the elaboration commission of the PMMA and the UNILA through the students, fomenting the ecological studies as a way to contribute to the observation of environment politics, inputting the comparative studies at a long run about the conservation of the region and for future investigations.
Furthermore, the Observatory, to attend his institutional vocation of integrating the territory, needs to integrate itself, to do that, will be created a digital platform, that will generate automatically information to the public bodies that are interested.
The “app-system” will allow the collective and participle monitoring of the problems and environmental conflicts, and also the good practice to be widespread. However, a monitoring, it’s constituted by analysis of the evolution of the situation over time, will just be enabled since an initial diagnosis, a point of reference from where should be effectuated comparisons, therefore, the determination of a better qualification or degradation of the environmental situation of the city. Such initial diagnoses constitute a mark zero and needs to include different types of socioenvironmental in Foz do Iguaçu.
The observatory collaborated with the construction of environment politics, such as politic trinational of adaptation to climate exchange, the municipal politic of environment education. This collaboration, happened because of the extension activity. However, to each politic, the data that still doesn’t exists are necessary, demanding, the investigations to keep happening.
Foz do Iguaçu it’s a city oriented by the tourism in nature, limited in three natural spaces that also are considered tourist attractions: National Park of Iguaçu, Lake of Itaipu and the River Paraná, that makes the border between Brazil-Paraguay. Underground, there is the Guarani Aquifer. It was hoped that your woods and water were being watched at least by touristic reasons, if not, by ecological.<br />
But it’s not this that is observed. In the last few years the team that works in the PMMA, identified an enormous amount of deforestation that is happening, authorizing the way in to a lot of big property investments. Sources were buried, courses of water relocated, big number of trees removed, and the new plan of afforestation predicts an extraction of at least 70% of the actual urban trees. The Guarani’s water has been extracted for the construction of seaside resorts much beyond the allowed capacity. The lack of management of the solid residuals in the city have caused the formation of smalls spillways in multiple parts of the city, threatening the public health, but getting a few people richer. The free flow of agro-chemical that came smuggled from Paraguay, contaminated the soil, the air, the water’s region, penetrating in the food chain, and compromising also the human health.<br />
Because of this, the PMMA is the priority environmental action to the city, because all of the problems exposed already, will make eventual modifications in the climate situation and can change de planes, considering the relation between the forest and the climate, the previous knowledge was a fundamental situation to predict this stuff, and to delimited the areas for conservation. However, the study of the climate changes can require constant investments and the cities nearby not always has found to do this, because of that, again is the importance of UNILA through the Observatory, this way the areas preserved by the PMMA will reestablish the ecosystem balance.<br />
The most innovating action of the project was the agglutination of information about the actual state of the remaining areas of the Atlantic Forest in the city, reuniting data that were confusing and not organized, or did not existed, as the maps of the areas to be protected and the georeferencing. From this data, it was possible the creation of indicators of monitoring; provided the dissemination of relevant information to the population and the interested bodies, furthermore it promoted information with a space of social articulation to help with the solution to the problems.
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| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 17.14 | Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development |
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Suellen Mayara Péres de Oliveira, PhD