How can we strengthen Conservation Units (CUs) in Tocantins? This is the question that has guided the work of the Onça D'Água Association over the past 20 years – more precisely since January 2003, when a group of socio-environmentalists came together to found the organization, whose objective is to support and influence public policies for biodiversity conservation in the state.
“Throughout this story, we have come across a group of people who have not been well-served, namely the rural communities surrounding the Conservation Units or in the unit itself, in the case of Environmental Protection Areas (APAs). We have noticed this fragility, the people who produce and practice agroextractivism are in need of assistance and guidance,” says Angélica Beatriz, administrative advisor of the Onça D'Água Association.
In Tocantins, 15% of the state's area is protected as Conservation Units. According to the legislation, after the creation of the Conservation Unit, a Management Plan must be drawn up establishing standards, restrictions on use, actions to be developed and management of the unit's natural resources.
However, plans are not always created within the timeframe stipulated by law – up to five years after the creation of the UC – or with standards desired by the population living in the surrounding area.
For this reason, Angélica explains that the organization's work today has also been to encourage the connection between communities and the institutions that manage them – especially with instances of municipal and state public power. "We encourage dialogue between the two groups and try to show where they can help and collaborate with each other, mainly because..." Naturatins (Tocantins Nature Institute) "He is responsible for the units. He is the local representative of public authority."
Networks Project
The project Networks of Sustainable Productive Initiatives in Environmental Protection Areas (APA) in Tocantins, executed by the Onça D'Água Association with the support of the PPP-ECOS Fund, ISPN, and financing from the Amazon Fund, involved the collaboration of managers from three environmental protection areas: APA Ilha do Bananal/Cantão, APA Serra do Lajeado and APA Jalapão.
"We managed to involve managers from the three APAs that were present in the project, and also involve two parks that..." They demonstrated interest in supporting the activities.“ explains Angélica.
She also highlights that “opening the way for dialogue” is one of the most important actions that the association has taken in recent years.
Camila Oliveira Muniz, supervisor of the Serra do Lajeado APA, explains that the project provided greater expertise for the government to act. “We have this connection with the community but we do not have the expertise that the Onça D'água team brought to us, with the ability to bring together people from other APAs to exchange experiences.”
The manager also says that the expectation, for the coming years, is to include products from the Cerrado's biodiversity in school meals to strengthen extractivism and family farming, “especially in the territory of our state's protected areas”.
From then on, the understanding of working in a network and collaboratively became more consolidated. The result of this is the Flower of Sustainability, a letter of intent and commitments on working with the sustainable use of natural resources.
Now, the time is to continue raising funds to strengthen the seed planted by the Redes project.
Started in 2022, with 24 months of execution, the project sought to invest in the incentive and qualification of local actors for productive insertion in the market, for income generation, and influence on local public policies, such as the municipal law approved in Caseara (TO) and authored by councilwoman Maria Angela da Toinha (PSB), member of AMA-Cantão, which encourages the provision of Cerrado fruits in school meals, promoting the improvement of quality of life and conservation of biodiversity.
Throughout this process, the project mapped 52 initiatives from rural communities, agro-extractive producers and artisans living in the Cerrado region of Tocantins.
Big Meeting
Held in October 2023, the Great Meeting for the Exchange of Knowledge and Jatobá Flour, in Caseara (TO), was one of the 14 training sessions promoted by the project. In total, the activities involved 316 beneficiaries – of which 91 were young people – including family farmers, agroextractive producers and artisans living in four regions of the Cerrado of Tocantins: APA Ilha do Bananal/Cantão, APA Serra do Lajeado, APA Jalapão and Serra Geral.
Invited to the event, the inventor from Palmas (TO) Enoque Oliveira Freitas presented a pulping machine capable of processing jatobá flour in greater quantities and in less time than the manual instrument, the mortar and pestle.
In an informal count to find out approximately the size of this difference, the event participants arrived at the following result: while the pestle produces 2 kg of flour in one hour, the machine is capable of producing up to 30 kg in the same time.
“This result is the result of an initial experiment. From then on, the possibility of seeking resources so that everyone could have the machine was on our radar,” explains Angélica.
The machine removes the pulp from the fruit. rich in minerals and fiber, without breaking its seed. “It’s an incredible advantage, we are able to produce more, because it brings together the group that harvests the jatobá in the forest while others are at home processing the fruit. It saves time and makes more profit,” argues José Batista dos Santos, better known as Zé Mininim.
On the other hand, he ponders: the pestle is tradition. “We can’t get rid of it because, for example, we’re in the middle of production and the power runs out. With the pestle we can continue.”
A specialist in the management of jatobá, Zé Mininim has been working with the fruit for almost 20 years and was responsible for the flour processing workshop at the Grande Encontro. In the video, he explains the different types of jatobá and highlights the importance of keeping trees standing for agroextractive activities. Check it out:
Cerrado
“Without the Cerrado, we cannot produce honey or any other beekeeping products, propolis, wax, and pollen,” says Antônio José de Carvalho, a beekeeper from the Manchete Settlement, located in the Redes program. Rural area of Marianópolis do Tocantins. "Our work in agriculture is about preservation, fighting fires, fighting the destruction of the Cerrado. We need the Cerrado standing, we don't want a deforested Cerrado."
Second Maurício José Alexandre de Araújo, executive director of Onça D'Água, states that one of the project's focuses is encouraging planting. He affirms that agriculture is a "bottleneck" for extractive activities, since, with deforestation increasing in the collection areas, it becomes increasingly difficult to extract fruits, especially if there is no one to plant them.
Lidejane Lopes de Oliveira and Maria Angela Gomes are extractivists from the Association of Agroextractivist Women of Cantão (AMA Cantão). For both, the fruits of the Cerrado mean the possibility of generating income and improving their quality of life.
“Each woman produces what she can, what is close to her region. And we do a little bit of everything. We transform the fruit into sweets, liqueur…”, explains Lidejane.
Maria says that “from the fruits we harvest, we are able to bring income to our table. This has changed my life and not only mine, but also the lives of the women who are part of this project.”
For Silvana Bastos, technical advisor at ISPN, the Cerrado will only be conserved on the scale we need through support and recognition of the role of traditional territories and the peoples and communities that live in and care for the biome.
The work of the Onça D'Água Association was recorded in a documentary, which summarized the two years of execution of the project. Check it out:
Here is PPP-ECOS: The project Networks of Sustainable Productive Initiatives in Environmental Protection Areas (APA) in Tocantins, executed by the Onça D'Água Association, was selected in the 29º PPP-ECOS notice, from ISPN, and had financing from the Amazon Fund.
Text by Camila Araujo, ISPN Communications Advisor. Photos by Studio OX/Onça D'água.