IDB approves fund to give environmental protection in Brazil
22 Sep '06
2 min read
The Inter-American Development Bank's Multilateral Investment Fund announced the approval of a $1,100,000 grant to the Sustainable Development Institute of the Extreme South of Bahia (IDES) to develop a replicable model of integrated production for small-scale rural producers located in environmental protection areas.
The model will be based on sustainable natural resource management techniques and will benefit at least 150 aquaculture and hundreds of small rural producers in cooperatives and associations in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, one of the world's most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems.
Previous lack of environmental awareness and destructive production techniques have caused indiscriminate deforestation in the region.
The government declared several parts of the state as “environmental protection areas” (APA) to ensure that human activities are compatible with plant, animal and water conservation, improving at the same time the quality of life of the local population on a sustainable basis.
The main production chains to be promoted will be: Aquaculture, mainly tilapia and oyster farming; palmito (palm heart); and cassava (yucca).
The program will also support a new piassaba palm production chain that will help reintroduce handicrafts based on coconut, piassaba straw and fiber; production of activated carbon and starch; eventual extraction of oil for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries; and manufacture of high-quality brooms and brushes.
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