To scale-up adoption of SLUP (Sustainable Land-use Practices) in the highlands region bordering the Pantanal, WCS Brasil in partnership with the rural municipality of Corguinho and the local NGO, Instituto Quinta do Sol, organized a celebration of Brazil’s National Tree Day, which happened on the first day of spring, September 21st, 2014. The celebration included a variety of friendly SLUP-themed competitions between the municipality’s rural associations. To allow plenty of time for preparations, we presented contest information and rules to the rural associations in August. Contests included: (1) raising native tree seedlings for vegetation restoration projects, (2) collecting aluminum cans from their communities for recycling, (3) constructing scale models of properties with sustainable farming and ranching practices, (4) growing crops using agro-forestry techniques (crops were donated and served with lunch during the festival), (5) composing songs about SLUP and the environment, and (6) storytelling by elders about how river and forest conditions have changed since their childhood. The sporting events included soccer games between the associations, and between the WCS-sponsored “Peccary” and “Aquatic Ecology” teams. The associations with the greatest number of tree seedlings, weight of food crops produced from agroforestry techniques, weight of aluminum cans collected, and number of soccer goals, plus the most environmentally-friendly and cost-effective SLUP scale models were awarded 1st , 2nd and 3rd place trophies. A commemorative plaque honoring the top “Amigos das Árvores” (friends of trees) rural association was presented at the end of the day’s festivities by WCS Brasil. The native tree seedlings collected during the event will be used during an agro-forestry capacity-building course to restore degraded sections of streams that feed floodplain rivers in the southern Pantanal.
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