Distribuição ocorreu no período de 06 a 13 de agosto e contou com o apoio financeiro da Sitawi Finanças do Bem e The Coca-Cola Foundation.

O Regatão do Bem vem avançando nas ações de combate e prevenção ao novo coronavírus no Estado do Amazonas. Nas últimas semanas, quatro municípios – Apuí, Maués, Lábrea e RDS do Uatumã – foram beneficiados com a ação. Segundo dados da Fundação de Vigilância em Saúde do Amazonas (FVS), em 16 de agosto, nessas localidades, havia registro de 4.628 casos confirmados e 69 mortes pela doença.

A ação social, que aconteceu no período de 6 a 13 de agosto, é uma iniciativa do Idesam em parceria com a Sitawi Finanças do Bem, organização social pioneira no desenvolvimento de soluções financeiras para impacto social, e The Coca-Cola Foundation que, juntas, doaram 868 kg de Equipamentos de Proteção Individual (EPI’s) e medicamentos. 

O material tem por finalidade amenizar a demanda dos municípios face a pandemia do novo coronavírus, sendo destinado a 14 Unidades Básicas de Saúde (UBS) e a um hospital. Ao todo, serão beneficiadas mais de 2 mil pessoas, entre pacientes e profissionais que atuam na área da saúde.

A entrega dos volumes contendo quase 4 mil EPIs, inclui máscaras, luvas, aventais, toucas, protetor facial, óculos de proteção e álcool líquido e álcool em gel 70% e serão concedidos aos profissionais de saúde que trabalham na linha de frente no combate à doença. Também foram entregues 75 testes para a COVID-19 e mais de 500 caixas de medicamentos e soros fisiológicos, que serão reservados ao tratamento de pacientes. 

De acordo com o Secretário Executivo de Saúde de Maués, José de Queiroz de Oliveira, os produtos entregues na Central de Medicamentos ajudarão no combate e na prevenção tanto dos profissionais como dos usuários do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS).  

“A doação será destinada a seis Unidades Básicas de Saúde, beneficiando em média 300 funcionários e mais de 1,2 mil pessoas que estão com a COVID-19 no município, auxiliando assim no tratamento da doença, visto que os medicamentos doados fazem parte do kit de fármacos utilizados nos pacientes com resultado laboratorial positivo para a COVID-19”, afirma.

Em Maués, não é a primeira vez que o sistema de saúde é apoiado pelas ações do Regatão do Bem. Em junho deste ano, a Casa de Saúde Indígena, o Hospital Raimunda Francisca Dinelli da Silva e 7 UBS foram contemplados com a doação de 480 litros de álcool, mais de 200 itens de limpeza contendo luvas descartáveis, detergente e água sanitária, além de máscaras e protetor facial para agentes de saúde do município. As doações foram fruto de uma parceria com a empresa Ambev e o projeto Aliança Guaraná de Maués. 

Em Lábrea, região do Rio Purus, onde já são mais de 2 mil casos confirmados e 28 óbitos, as doações recebidas foram entregues a UBS Chico Breve, que vem atendendo as demandas de pacientes com a COVID-19. No município de Apuí, localizado no sul do estado, os medicamentos e EPIs foram entregues à Secretaria de Saúde do Município, que fará a distribuição dos itens para seis UBS e para o Hospital Eduardo Braga. Em Apuí, 126 casos foram confirmados até o momento e nenhuma morte registrada.

Comunidades ribeirinhas

Distante 330 km de Manaus e localizada entre os municípios de Itapiranga e São Sebastião do Uatumã, a Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (RDS) do Uatumã, também sofre com os impactos gerados pela pandemia do novo coronavírus, que paralisou as principais atividades econômicas das 20 comunidades, onde vivem mais de 1,6 mil pessoas.

Para o gestor da RDS do Uatumã, Cristiano Gonçalves, o envio de medicamentos e EPIs é importante para trazer segurança e alívio aos moradores da Reserva.

“Apesar de poucas comunidades apresentarem alguns casos da doença, as doações são muito importantes, pois ajudarão a intensificar o trabalho dos agentes de saúde sem que os moradores precisem se deslocar para os municípios vizinhos atrás de tratamento. Isso vai contribuir para a prevenção e para a redução de contágio dentro da Reserva, onde moram 420 famílias”, declara 

A RDS do Uatumã também foi contemplada pelo Regatão do Bem no mês de julho, quando recebeu o auxílio de 500 cestas básicas e kits de higiene, doados pela Fundação Banco do Brasil, contribuindo para que as pessoas não precisassem sair da Reserva para comprar comida.

Além, dos medicamentos e EPI’s, cada Unidade Básica de Saúde, dos quatro municípios, e o hospital Eduardo Braga, de Apuí, receberam ainda 490 unidades de álcool gel 70%, doados pela rede O Boticário e pela União Amazonas, parceira do Idesam também nas doações de cestas básicas realizadas no mês de julho para 100 famílias carentes do bairro Cidade de Deus, em Manaus. O álcool gel é item essencial na prevenção ao novo coronavírus e será utilizado pelos profissionais de saúde.

Até o momento, o Regatão do Bem já apoiou 6 municípios do Estado do Amazonas com a entrega de mais de 77 toneladas de alimentos e produtos de higiene e segurança, impactando positivamente na vida de mais de 17 mil pessoas.Para dar continuidade as ações do Regatão do Bem, empresas, instituições ou pessoas físicas que queiram contribuir podem entrar em contato pelas redes sociais no Facebook, Instagram ou Twitter (@idesam), ou fazer a doação diretamente no link idesam.org/apoie.

By Henrique Saunier
Translated by Felipe Sá
Photos: Archive/Disclosure

More than 7,000 trees were planted by the Carbon Neutral Program (PCN, the acronym in Portuguese) in 2020, benefiting around 150 people in eight communities of the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS, the acronym in Portuguese), in the interior of the state of Amazonas. Created and coordinated by Idesam since 2010, the program aims to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of people, events, products or any activity carried out by institutions that seek to reduce the impact of their footprint on the planet.

In 2020 alone, the planted seedlings will have the role of compensating around 2,000 tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere, recovering seven hectares of degraded areas in the reserve. This was possible thanks to the planting of seedlings of Cacau, Cupuaçu, Açaí, Guaraná, Cumaru, Andiroba, Graviola, Avocado, Preciosa and Itaúba, all species chosen in partnership with community members.

The seedlings of forest species that were planted were produced within the reserve itself, in three nurseries built on the properties of the PCN’s partner producers. Alongside the planting of the seedlings, seeds of pork beans, Ipê, urucum, patauá, jenipapo, paricá, banana seedlings, macaxeira, pineapple among others were also planted at the choice of producers.

“These species guarantee the sustainability of the system as they produce fruit in a short time and at different times. This way, the system will always be producing something, optimizing the space and efforts, generating food and income for the families”, explains Idesam’s environmental engineer responsible for the planting, Jefferson Araújo.

The farming families who benefited from the Carbon Neutral Program in 2020 live in the communities of Maracarana, Caribi, Livramento, Pedras and Jacarequara, traditional communities in the RDS known for their agricultural profile. The model of agroforestry systems (SAFs, the acronym in Portuguese) implemented in these communities was directed to the production of food, oils and forest recovery.

Mariza Nobre, one of the community members of the Uatumã RDS and partner of the Carbon Neutral Program, supports the initiative with her seedling nursery, which last year produced almost two thousand seedlings used in planting. Mariza is an example of the strategic role played by women in the cultivation of SAFs and in the success of the program, which counts on around 80 women in various fronts of action.

Mariza Nobre in her seedling nursery, at the Uatumã RDS (Archive/Rodrigo Duarte)

“My job in all this is to produce a good seedling, so that when it goes to the field, we get a good result and for this I count on the support of people in the community who work with me. The people behind it are fundamental, because just as we need someone to make seedlings, plant and take care of the SAFs, we also need someone to finance this initiative, so that it reaches even more families”, says Mariza Nobre.

According to Idesam’s new business coordinator, Talia Bonfante, the fires in the Amazon in 2019 moved society and led to greater participation by individuals interested in offsetting their emissions. Bonfante highlights that at least one third of the program’s planting was done through the donation of tree seedlings.

Choosing the planting areas

The areas recovered through the implementation of the Carbon Neutral Program’s Agroforestry Systems were carefully selected throughout 2019 by the program team, which counted on the support of trainees from the Federal Institute of Amazonas (IFAM). In this stage of preparation prior to planting, Idesam held meetings, courses on fire-free land preparation and several technical visits to the communities.

Due to the great distances between the communities within the reserve, one of the main challenges of the program is still the transportation of the seedlings to the planting areas, a stage that demands much effort and resources. In order to register a low rate of loss of seedlings with this logistics, the team needs to make several trips, in small regional boats.

All this work was only possible because the Program had the support of 21 partners this year, including individuals and institutions. Companies such as Alter-nativ Brésil, which supported the planting of 300 trees, were able to get to know the impact of this action on the lives of families in the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve.

“The experience of getting to know this reality up close, with my 16-year-old daughter, was a great lesson in humility, in interaction with the simple and true things of nature. Besides the program and all the logistical work that planting demands, we managed to understand that this is not only about planting a tree”, says the owner of the tourism company, Yannick Ollivier.

By Henrique Saunier

Translated by Felipe Sá

Photos by Rodrigo Duarte

Carried out by Idesam, the Cidades Florestais Project (Forest Cities Project) opened last Thursday (01/23) a mini-plant to process vegetable oil from the Amazon in the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS, in Portuguese), municipality of São Sebastião do Uatumã. With an investment of R$ 400 thousand, the mini-plant is the first of two new structures to be built by the Project that has already improved other three plants located in the municipalities of Carauari, Silves and Lábrea.

Representatives of the Amazon Fund, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the State Government were present at the event. The structure will directly benefit over 300 families, diversifying the source of income generation and strengthening social entrepreneurship in the region.

The plant’s production will mainly supply the cosmetics sector, by benefiting buriti, breu, priprioca, andiroba and copaíba oils and cupuaçu and tucumã butters.

For Elisângela Cavalcante, farmer and extractive producer in the Uatumã RDS who has been working with tucumã (among other species) planting and collection for many years, the newly opened structure brings a new perspective to the fruit. “We did not take advantage of the stone, the tucumã almond, so the mini-plant is a hope for this reuse and that this generates income for our family and the whole community as well”, says Cavalcante.

The industry has a production capacity of 3 tons of fixed oils, in addition to 90 liters of essential oils a month. If it reaches its maximum production capacity, the mini-plant can generate an average revenue of R$ 850 thousand to community members of the Uatumã RDS.

“The Uatumã’s mini-plant will make products with greater added value to the community of the Sustainable Development Reserve. This will make the Rerserve’s associates who go to work at the plant have a higher income gain, for residents and for the Producers’ Association that will manage it”, said André Vianna, coordinator of the Project.

Cidades Florestais (Forest Citites Project)

The Cidades Florestais Project started in 2018 with the purpose of promoting the forest economy of municipalities in the interior of the state of Amazonas. This takes place through the promotion of forestry and vegetable oil production chains, with producer organizations in the following municipalities: Apuí, Carauari, Itapiranga, São Sebastião do Uatumã, Silves and Lábrea.

“Bio-economy deep in the Amazon must be seen through the potential for multiple use of the forest, and Cidades Florestais structures associations for the diversified production of wood, oils, essences and vegetable butters from the Amazon”, highlights Carlos Gabriel Koury, Idesam’s Technical Director.

In the first years of activities, the Project enabled the sale of over 8 tons of vegetable oils produced by extractive communities, with a turnover of more than R$ 400 thousand, benefiting more than 90 producers. A potential of more than 300 trees for non-timber use has already been mapped. For timber use, a total of 5,200 hectares in productive areas was licensed for community forest management with the Project’s support only in the Uatumã RDS. Altogether more than ten thousand trees are already registered in the app.

Text: Henrique Saunier
Translation: Felipe Sá
Photo: Athena Meincke

The transition from traditional agriculture to Agroforestry Systems (SAFs, in Portuguese) of less impact to the environment is just one of the achievements for around 40 families that live in 8 communities inside the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS, in Portuguese), all of them are supported by Idesam’s Carbon Neutral Program (PCN, in Portuguese). 9 more families are joining the Program in 2019. The benefits go beyond offsetting and neutralizing tons of CO2, including the delivery of important positive social impact in the region.

Currently in an advanced stage of preparation, the opening of the “nests” that will receive the seedlings, PCN’s 2019 Planting will be one of the largest already coordinated by Idesam, accounting for 12 thousand future trees planted in a 1 year cycle. With 9 more families, the plantings that will take place in the 35 SAFs monitored by Idesam should start in the first half of February.

The increasing engagement of women in the sector and a greater diversity of products cultivated are already impacts of the work carried out in almost a decade by Idesam in partnership with local residents. Francimeire Brigido, one of the farmers who are ready to start this year’s plantings, is a clear example of the fundamental role women have in the Program. Born and raised in the Livramento community, she is passionate about the plants that decorate the surroundings of her home, and the duty is no sacrifice or news to her or to the other women of the Uatumã RDS, who help keep the Agroforestry Systems areas supported by Idesam standing and healthy.

“I really enjoy living here and, since we started working with Idesam’s project, I was able to get in touch with a larger variety of seedlings. Cultivating, taking care of the plantings and of my plants fulfils me. I am really grateful for these people who support this project and help us to continue this work of great importance to nature”, says Francimeire in a statement about the impacts of the Carbon Neutral Program to the community.

To PCN’s technical coordinator, Jefferson Souza, who offers constant assistance to the producers and closely monitors the local reality, this kind of transformation is one of the reasons why he considers the project as successful and that will hopefully continue for several years. In his assessment, the Program was able to demystify, to the community members, many questions concerning the work carried out by institutions like Idesam and the cultivation of SAFs which, over the years, aroused the interest of other producers that saw the positive results becoming reality.

“The extractivistic culture is really present, but now we are perceiving a change towards a farming beyond self-consumption, something driven by the courses and talks that Idesam promoted with the families of the region. Before, there used to be a production almost exclusively of manioc, now there is already a perspective to plant açaí, cocoa and cupuaçu in the future, but this process of raising awareness is also gradual”, states Jefferson.

Idesam’s Climate Change manager, Pedro Soares, says the planting represents a milestone for Idesam’s PCN, as it reflects an expansion of the Program in recent years. “We hit a record in the planting of trees in the Uatumã RDS, overcoming 12 thousand seedlings in 1 year, what directly communicates our mission to attract partners who are willing to reduce their carbon footprints, besides the benefits for climate and the communities”, he highlights.

In addition to the community members that actively participate in the PCN, other actors that benefit from it are the nurseries that provide the seedlings to the Program, all of them are purchased from local producers. The planting also has the goal of improving the income of locals, targeting species with strong commercial appeal to the local and even the international markets, such as the introduction of certain types of peppers and plants for extraction and processing of vegetable oils.