Brazilian Farmers Get Paid for Reforesting

Brazilian farmers from six cities in the interior of the state of Minas Gerais, in the Brazilian Southeast, have embarked on a new project. They are contributing to the reforestation of degraded areas for the preservation of an important native species: candeia (Eremanthus erythropappus). The project includes the partnership of the state and federal governments, of the German government, of the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) and of the Organization of the Amanhágua Civil Society for Public Interest (Oscip), which operates in the city of Baependi, in southern Minas. According to Mônica Lopes Buono, director of Amanhágua, the target is to end the year of May 2009, when the agricultural year ends in the country, with 2,100 hectares of planted preservation area and around 300 hectares of so-called extraction woods. In 2008,... [read full story]