GEO Brasil - UNEP

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Other equally important programmemes are the water micro
basin ones:
a) Santa Catarina State’s Water Micro Basins Natural
Resources Recovery, Conservation and
Management Project (Projeto de Recuperação,
Conservação e Manejo dos Recursos Naturais em
Microbacias Hidrográficas no Estado de Santa
Catarina).
With support from the Bank for International
Reconstruction and Development (BIRD), this
programmeme has reached highly satisfactory results,
such as: 534 micro basins worked on; 106,028 farmers
served; 44,126 Individual Property Plans outlined;
806,000 hectares with soil conservation; 8,496
processors built, 13,985 water fountains protected; 500
collective toxic waste deposits built; 5,229 rural schools
familiarised with environmental education. Results
obtained at Lageado Sao Jose’s micro water basin
(Chapeco, SC), from 1991 to 1998 show significant
advances in the soil and water conservation System
(Bassi, 1999). Substantial improvements were seen in
the quality of water, in soil degrading reduction, crop
productivity evolution, and, consequently, in increased
rural property income.
b) Rural Paraná programmeme (Programa Paraná Rural).
The Soil and Water Conservation and Management
programmeme in the state of Paraná was implemented
in the period spanning from 1989 to 1997, in partnership
with the World Bank, and is dealt with the water micro
basins as project teams considered work units took
water erosion of soil as the most significant for the
agricultural sector’s environmental issue and
incorporated the farmers’ organisation in the search
for alternatives and common solutions of utmost
importance (Bragagnolo et al., 1997). This
programmeme has been obtaining important results,
there are environmental results; projects have reached
2,433 micro basins, spanning 7.1 million hectares.
Erosion caused river pollution, as measured by the
turbidity index, showed an average reduction to the
tune of 49.3%. A comparative study of fountains from
two processed micro water basins – a partially worked
on one and an unprocessed one, showed a significant
reduction in drinking water for human consumption
treatment cost, which demonstrates the
programmeme’s indirect benefit to the urban
population There are production results: in 120 micro
water basins, increases in the bean, corn, soy and
wheat production were noticed, relative to the
programmeme’s beginning as a function of the soil’s
fertile layer loss reduction, coupled with the
incorporation of new management and resource use
practices as outlined in the programmeme. The
effective involvement and commitment by the rural
producers has generated high levels of new
recommended technologies. These one socioeconomic
results: a case study performed in the
Southwest of Paraná, with 477 beneficiary producers,
showed significant evolution in some indexes
established at the programmeme’s beginning: - an
8.14% increment in the number of tractors; 10.21%in
the number of limestone distributors and 14.28in the
number of manure distributors; - an increase from
US$ 4,440.00 to US$ 5,475.04 per adult person/year
in the family’s workforce gross income; - an average
increase of 5.04m2 in the size of homes; - an increase
of 5.5% in the number of refrigerators and 9.7% in
that of gas stoves. The rural roads maintenance cost,
was reduced, and is used to be US$ 850/km/year,
after the intervention was reduced by some 50%.
Certainty of how correct programmeme
interventions were comes mostly from the farmers’
persistence in using the management practices
brought about it, evidence that the benefits outweigh
the associated costs. Thus, it is expected that these
examples and reached impacts will work as a
reference for the implementation of similar public
policies in other states.
c) Programmemes and Projects Run in the State
of São Paulo.
Mulch direct Planting Project (Projeto Plantio Direto
na Palha) – that includes financing the acquisition of
adequate equipment for this system. This is true
specially for mini and small rural producers and their
associations and co-operatives. It spans the entire
state of Sao Paulo, and started in 1998. Better Road
programmeme (Programa Melhor Caminho)
promotes the conservation and maintenance of dirt
roads (estimated at 300 km per county) by means of
their technical and operational personnel. This
programmeme focused on soil and water
conservation, and the implantation of a model stretch
of road. Micro Water Basins State programmeme
(Programa Estadual de Microbacias Hidrográficas),
started in 2000, with support from the World Bank.
This programmeme has the following 5-year goals:
500 micro water basins worked on or about 4.5
million ha; 90,000 benefited farmers, with
strengthening of farmers’ associations, rural
leaderships and environmental monitors
qualification, riverside woods planting, etc.
250