Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

impact, recovery anD conservation of coastal ecosystems in brasil 215
the mangrove waters. It serves as a source of food, shelter, and nursery
for many other marine species, as well as landing and feeding grounds for
migrating birds.
Village people who settled in the country’s remaining mangrove areas
earn a living from extractive activities in this ecosystem. As for social
benefits, mangroves provide a singular culture and organization for the
harvest, process and sale of crab. There is still some fishing, and previously
larger scale shrimp harvesting.
The mangroves’ ‘prohibition law’ – prohibiting harvest during breeding
periods – has created serious social problems because of marginalizing,
periodically, the activity of crab catchers. The enforcement of environmental
protection ultimately encourages the appearance of an illegal market. This
relationship between environmental and social issues needs to be solved by
educating about the handling of species, so as to ensure permanent economic
activity for the social groups involved in the use of the products originating
in the mangroves.
Initiatives for the Recovery of Highly Degraded
Guanabara Bay Areas
Many environmental recovery projects in Brasil have been initiated due to the
urgency of addressing economic developments that have adversely impacted
the environment. An example was a major accident that took place in the
Guanabara Bay in January of the year 2000. The accident occurred within
a pipeline of the Petrobras oil refinery. This accident was a leak coming out
of the pipes of REDUC, more precisely from the dark products duct (PE-II)
that deposited nearly 1,293 million liters of oil in natura into the Guanabara
Bay waters, resulting in severe damage to ecosystems.
To mitigate these effects, in partnership with other non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), the NGO ‘Foundation Ondazul’ began the
restoration work of highly degraded areas in the city of Mage, the area most
affected by the oil leak. An area of 120,000 m2 has already been recovered
from a total of 640,000m2 .
Environmental awareness is raised in the western world via nonprofit
organizations that disseminate and report problems that severely
affect the environment. The problems start with the lack of action by
governments not fulfilling their role. Insufficient technical staff hinders the
execution of projects for the recovery of degraded areas. Governmental
bodies are far from meeting the need for regulating enterprises that cause
adverse impact.
Ondazul Foundation has shown that it is not difficult to recover large
areas, but it takes many years of ongoing work to fully restore the habitat
of various birds, crustaceans, mammals and reptiles. The greatest challenge,
however, for the sustainability of such projects is educating the population
as to the importance of these ecosystems.