Suellen Nunes*
Family farmers in Pará are beginning to be paid for recovering native vegetation on their properties. The first PSA (Payment for Environmental Services) payment to participants in the project “Recovery of Amazon Ecosystems in the State of Pará”, carried out by IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) in partnership with TikTok, marked another stage of the training, “CapGestão Cacau – PSA and Environmental Regularization module”, held on May 20 and 21 in Altamira (PA).
The training was held in partnership with GIZ (German Cooperation Agency) and brought together family farmers, technicians and representatives of public institutions to discuss PES, environmental regularization and strategies for strengthening sustainable agriculture in the Transamazon region. The activity is part of the Valoriza TS (Valorizes Sustainable Territories) program, set up by the Government of Pará through State Law 10.167/2023, with the aim of promoting sustainable development in Pará’s rural territories. The initiative encourages production practices aligned with environmental conservation, recovery of degraded areas, environmental regularization and appreciation of the environmental services provided by family farming.
The “Recovery of Amazon Ecosystems in the State of Pará” project, carried out by IPAM with funding from TIKTOK, contributes to the implementation and strengthening of the Payments for Environmental Services Program, within the scope of Valoriza TS in the Transamazon region. The initiative cooperates with family farming through environmental recovery of degraded areas, maintenance of APPs and forest reserves, as well as the inclusion of rural families in compensation mechanisms for environmental services.
“The PSA strengthens family farming by combining income generation, technical assistance and environmental conservation. The initiative encourages sustainable practices, such as Agroforestry Systems (SAFs) and the recovery of degraded areas, contributing directly to the preservation of forests, the protection of water sources and the reduction of carbon emissions. In addition, the training courses on the subject broaden the understanding of farmers and technicians working in the region about mechanisms that recognize and financially value those who conserve the environment,” says Elisangela Trzeciak, IPAM’s researcher and coordinator for Transamazônica and Xingu.
Recovering conservation areas
The area covered by the project, run by IPAM, includes the municipalities of Medicilândia, Brasil Novo, Altamira, Vitória do Xingu, Senador José Porfírio, Anapu and Pacajá, all located in the Transamazon region of Pará. The project also offers technical assistance to 100 producers who meet the criteria established by IPAM and SEMAS, recovery of 150 hectares of altered areas with biodiverse SAFs (Agroforestry Systems) and support for the inclusion of families in the State PES Program. The target group is small landowners with areas of up to four fiscal modules.
Among the actions planned are the recovery of APPs (Permanent Preservation Areas), the adoption of good forestry practices, the maintenance of agroforestry systems and the conservation of areas of native vegetation in Legal Reserves. The initiative also seeks to increase family farmers’ access to public environmental policies and strengthen sustainable local economies.
For family farmer Emerson Jordan Fontes, the first to receive PSA amounts in Transamazon, the program represents an opportunity to improve production and increase his family’s income through sustainable practices. “With the support of the project, we were able to recover degraded areas with forest species suitable for growing cocoa, combining production and environmental conservation. As well as improving the soil and strengthening the crop, the initiative shows producers that it is possible to produce cocoa sustainably, generating income and preserving the forest,” says the producer.
According to Fontes, before participating in the project, farmers already recognized the need to recover degraded areas, but faced difficulties in putting the actions into practice due to a lack of technical guidance and financial resources.
“Before the project, we knew that we needed to recover the areas and move forward with environmental regularization, but we lacked the technical guidance and resources to put this into practice. We didn’t know which forest species to use, the right spacing, the type of fertilizer or how to carry out the recovery correctly. With technical support, we came to understand the whole process, from planning to maintaining the area, showing that technical assistance is fundamental for farmers to be able to recover degraded areas in a sustainable and productive way,” Fontes concludes.
IPAM communications analyst*