Escola Professor Antônio de Sousa Pedroso
Escola Professor Antônio de Sousa Pedroso The Borari school Professor Antônio de Sousa Pedroso (Escola Professor Pedroso) was opened on May 30, 1985, by decree nº 772/85 – DAD. This school is centrally located in the village of Alter do Chão, on Rua Pedro Teixeira, s/n, Tapajós Region, Municipality of Santarém, State of Pará, Brazil. In June 2006, the SEMD coordination communicated to the management of this school that the school would function as indigenous education – as the community has always sought to preserve and maintain it’s Borari cultural identity. As of 2022 this school is under full Borari coordination. ACRAA Collaboration with this School After initial communications with the management of Escola Professor Pedroso in April 2022, ACRAA’s first collaboration with this school consisted of assiting with the preparations for, and then attending as honoured guests, celebrations at the school marking Indigenous Peoples Week. This event occured on…
Carbon Analysis
Carbon Footprint Analysis In this section we discuss the “carbon footprint” associated with travelling to the amazon to participate in our (near future) reforestation tourism program [1][2]. But at the outset here, to those that would immediatey scoff at such proposition simply because, yes, this does involve air travel, we respectfully argue — you do not undertsatnd the bigger picture here. Understand the amazon region is extremely economically depressed [3]. Even before the pandemic this was the case, but now it is much worse. As a consequence there are some here in Brazil calling for much higher levels of resource extraction (minerals, logging) and expansion of industrial agriculture (esp. soya). And this is occuring – with record rates of deforestation seen in 2022. See this recent article in Guardian. And this will continue to increase, unless we find alternate “green” forms of economic development. We see our reforestation tourism initiative…
School Ceremony April 18/22
Escola Professor Antônio de Sousa Pedroso – Indigenous Peoples Week Ceremony. April 18, 2022 On April 18, 2022 ACRAA was honoured with a role as part of the annual Indigenous Peoples Week ceremononies at the Escola Professor Antônio de Sousa Pedroso. This was an especially big honor as 2022 marks the first year that this school is under Borari coordination. This ceremony commenced just after mid-day with all students of this school attending. After an opening ritual in which we all joined hands and sang, the leaders of this school and community spoke. Thor was also given an opportunity to address the gathering and talk about ACRAA and our alliance with the Borari community, which was a great honor. A small tree planting ceremony then ensued for which ACRAA had made earlier preparations and also provided seedlings. The day also included all those present participating in the Ritual of Sairé.…
Máquina Land
Micro-Agroforestry System on Máquina’s Land Máquina (Cleidson da Conceição) was born in the Alter do Chão area, and has been instrumental in the construction of ACRAA’s water system and nursery (he is a very skilled construction worker). He owns a small partially treed property in a predominantly forested area outside of the village (here to be exact: -2.530419, -54.956013). He requested fruit bearing trees to establish a small agroforestry system on his property, which ACRAA donated to him in April of 2022. Several ACRAA associates (Diego, Daki, Mica, Thor, and along with Máquina) went to this property on April 12 to assist with planting. The photos below illustrate this day. Note the planting was not finished on April 12. Soon we will present photos of the completed work. Photo 1: The plants loaded ready to transport to Máquina’s property. Mica, an ACRAA associate and volunteer, is seen here. Apr.12/22. Photo…
First Planting Ilha do Amor
First Planting on the Ilha do Amor On February 4, 2022 we were honored to participate in tree planting cermorny on the Ilha do Amor, this our first planting event here (Photos 1 to 8). This musical cermony was led by Neca Borari, Chief of the local Borari indigenous comminity, with drumming assitance by Juvenal Ferreira also of this comminity. ACRAA provided five large Comandá seedlings, the parents of which we were planting along side [1]. Prior to planting the first tree Neca selected the five planting locations [2]. Each tree was also fitted with a protected wooden box-structure. The photos below were taken on this day, and below this a video recorded during planting of the very first tree (sorry no subtitles)[3]. Photos taken three and ten weeks after planting are also shown below (Photos 9 and 10). [1] The seeds used to grow these Comandá were collected on…
Water Tower
ACRAA Water Tower / System When the ACRAA property was purchased, an artesian well was already in place. The first year of nursery operations was arduous, however, as all the water needed for our nursery had to be pumped manually. Therefore, in January of 2021 construction of a water system began in earnest. Photos 1 to 10 show the construction – the system is functioning wonderfully now. Photo 1: Raising the posts for our water tower. From front to back – Máquina, Jaci, Thor, Diêgo. Jan. 21, 2021. Photo 2: All four posts standing. Jan. 2021. Photo 3: Máquina and Diêgo starting the top platform. Jan. 26, 2021. Photo 4: Roof ready for the palm leaves. Mar. 10, 2021. Photo 5: Diêgo inspecting the trusses. Mar.11, 2021. Photo 6: Jaci, Daki and Diêgo preparing (opening) the palm leaves. Mar.12, 2021. Photo 7: Jaci securing the palm leaves. Mar.17, 2021. Photo…
Education
Education Education is the third branch of the ACRAA tree. There will be many elements to this branch, one of which is this website itself. This is because as time goes on we will include more and more detailed technical content – information that will help anyone else interested in undertaking reforestation and agroforestry projects in the humid tropics, or even replicating what we are doing here in Alter do Chão. Another important element is the work we are doing with local schools to support education in these areas. Here we very excited about the alliance we have formed the local Borari schools here in Alter do Chão. Our first work with these schools occured on April 18 and 20, 2022 – in conjunction with celebrations in relation to Indigenous Peoples Week here. See our ACRAA at School Program to learn more. But a critical component of our educational activities will be…
Agroforestry Plants
Plants for Use in Agroforestry Systems and Urban Afforestation About half the ACRAA nursery is devoted to the production of trees/plants for use in agroforestry systems and urban afforestation. Here we do not follow the same strict guidelines in terms of using only “native” species and seedlot management, as we do with our restoration plants, as these plants are for an “agricultural” application. However, all the species propagated are from the seeds of locally/regionally grown species – so although some of these may not be originally native to this area, all are now naturalized to the area (mature fruit producing trees present in the region). We do have a policy of not propagating seed brought from places outside the local region (i.e, other parts of Brazil or beyond). Currently, our selection of agroforestry plants includes 31 species and a total of around 350 plants. Most are fruit trees, but medicinal…
Restoration Plants
Plants for Use in Ecological Restoration / Reforestation About half the ACRAA nursery is devoted to the production of trees/plants for use in ecological restoration and reforestation. Here strict guidelines are followed in terms of using only native species that are found at, or known to be suited to the site where they will be planted. To this end we have developed a seed-lot numbering and seed registration and tracking system. This is now being managed by our Brazilian Professional Forester (Forest Engineer) – Waldeir – who started with us in March of 2022. See Waldeir’s bio here. According to this system trees/plants are numbered/divided into three categories using the prefixes P, F or I as follows: P = “Árvores da Praia” (Beach Trees). These are trees/plants native to the “inundation zone” on the banks of the river Tapajós [1]. F = “Árvores da Floresta” (Forest Trees). These are trees/plants…
Agroforestry
Agroforestry A basic definition of “agroforestry” is farming systems whereby trees and shrubs specifically selected for their ability to produce food, wood or other wanted products, are incorporated with agricultural crops and/or animals in a spatial and/or temporal manner (note that shade is also a valuable function of trees in agroforestry systems). The benefits of such systems over purely “un-treed” agricultural production are numerous, and include increased biological and economic resiliency, increased biodiversity, and carbon sequestration and storage. Incorporating trees into agricultural systems can also improve soil fertility and help heal degraded lands. See how here. We feel this science must be part of forest restoration efforts in the amazon, as forests that can sustain families and communities are needed to address food and economic security locally and regionally. Some, as in a recent article in the Guardian, have gone as far as to say that larger-scale reforestation (such as,…
English 
Português do Brasil