What We Do
The Pontes para o Crescimento (Brigdes for Growth) Institute promotes significant activities for real benefit of the Caatinga Biome, such as: production and donation of seed and seedling for reforestation, free environmental education actions, dissemination of organic compost and scientific researches to protect the biodiversity of the region.
Environmental Education
Our Environmental Education Programme connects rural communities of Northeastern Brazil and everyone around the world with our Caatinga. It creates awareness of the issues impacting this biome from which we all benefit, as well as it takes actions to improve and preserve that.
We share essential knowledge, allowing all of us to develop attitudes which generate responsibility towards sustainable living. Our programme offers the skills we need to be creative problem solvers and become good environmental citizens.
Benefits of Environmental Education
To develop critical and creative thinking skills.
To promote the understanding of how decisions and actions affect the environment and to build the necessary knowledge and skills to address 21st-century environmental issues.
To foster tolerance and understanding.
To enhance sensitivity, appreciation, and respect for the environment.
To reduce stress due to increased time spent in nature.
To stimulate good nutrition.
To promote sense of place and connection through the community involvement.
To save money by learning actions to improve costs in electricity, water, waste management, and more.
To improve the level of eco-friendly behaviour through recycling, energy efficiency, rational use of water, among others.
Reforestation
Healthy forests contribute to society and the planet, providing ecosystem services, strengthening livelihoods, providing clean water and air, helping to conserve biodiversity and responding against climate change. Besides, much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity is found in forests. For that reason, forests must be protected with rational planning, which allows their natural regeneration while complementing it through tree planting.
Reforestation is a complex task that involves several social systems, and thus it is possible to create the conditions for the land to continue supporting human life.
Seeds
We have built a seed bank with more than 30 native species from the Caatinga biome. It helps in the conservation of genetic biodiversity, providing seeds for the production of seedlings. Our seeds are collected from several matrices of species under threat of extinction and also species that are attractive to fauna, selected from different partsof the Caatinga.
Seedlings
Our seedlings are produced under rigorous organic and eco-forestry procedures. They are produced respecting ecological interactions, avoiding plastic materials and using water rationally.
Seedling Distribution
One of our specific initiatives has been the distribution of seedlings. Besides donatingthe seedlings, we also exchange knowledge, pass on information about the importance of forests, the necessary care and thus, reaching a larger number of people and localities. Therefore, ways of restoring environmental conditions with specific initiatives for the surroundings are the successful formula that assures the accelerated healing of forests.
Benefits of Reforestation
Preservation of wildlife habitat
Clean and abundant water
Carbon sequestration
Opportunity for entertainment activities in nature
Reduction of soil erosion
Maintenance of genetic biodiversity
Protection and restoration of the aquatic ecosystems
Opportunity for hands-on activities and workshops
Research Centre
Our research centre was consolidated due to a partnership with the Federal University in Ceará (UFC), mediated by a faculty member, the PhD Lamartine Oliveira, with the planning, implementation and management of the Caatinga’s native species forest seedling nursery. And that partnership aims to mobilize the institutional and individual capacities of our team, partners and students, encouraging innovation and strengthening scientific research. In this sense, we established environmental conservation management strategies, like research to combat invasive species, production of seedlings, construction of a seed bank, and environmental education actions, promoting access for all people.
We also signed an agreement with the UFC Internship Agency, creating opportunities for students to add values to their undergraduate courses and assist them in their capacity building. Together with this eminent institution, we ensure that the knowledge produced reaches the actors in the carnauba’s production chain and the rural communities, contributing to making their actions more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.
Benefits of Research Centre
Generation of solutions to environmental problems
Inclusive education for all
Strengthening of scientific research
Development of sustainable technologies
Soil restoration
Protection and restoration of forests
Incentive to rural extension programs
Promotion of more sustainable habits
Access to learning opportunities
Publishing of educational material
Open space for knowledge exchange
Composting
It is an important practice that emphasizes the role of soil, reusing organic waste derived from industrial and domestic processes, transforming them into organic compost. Organic waste does not receive all the necessary treatment for the multiple contaminants to be decomposed. Then, these are dumped into the groundwater contaminating rivers and rendering the soil unproductive. In composting, we have microorganisms that decompose these contaminants, allowing a most effective release of nutrients.
Thus, composting generates an organic material that contributes to the dynamics of the water in soil, strengthening its infiltration, percolation and retention capacity creating a better structured soil that requires less water for agriculture. In addition to reusing organic waste, we also reuse plastic waste that would otherwise be discarded in the environment and take decades to be degraded, such as packaging of ice cream, butter, paint and others that have become garbage, by giving them a brand-new feature, contributing positively to the environment.
For all this, composting is versatile, universal, sustainable, and improves the bonds between community and environment.
Benefits of composting
High-quality organic fertilizer
Reduces water use
Assists in carbon sequestration
It can be a source of income
Assists in family economy
Makes nutrients more available to plants
Contributes to nutrient cycling
It can be done by anyone, anywhere
Decreases soil erosion
Decomposes contaminants
Lessens the release of nitrogen into the atmosphere
Lowers pollution
