‘The standing forest has to be worth more than soy and cattle’, says Suzana Pádua; read interview

Suzana Pádua, who has been dedicated to the fight for the defense of nature for three decades. Photo: Tiago Queiroz / Estadão

Environmental educator says that ‘biodiversity is a treasure’ that the country will not be able to recover if it is lost.

Immersed, for some time now, in the defense of the environment, and knowing that in this fight education is fundamental, the doctor in sustainable development Suzana Pádua elects as vital for the country a plan for now – with the turn of government – ​​and another in the medium term . “We’re going to have to somehow rebuild our environmental agencies.” And, later on, “we will have to make the standing forest worth more than soybeans and cattle”.

Behind this synthesis there are three decades of struggle in defense of nature – which included the creation of the Ipê Institute and the Higher School of Environmental Education and Sustainability (Escas), where short courses, masters and MBAs are offered.

“We want to spread our passion for nature to professionals, in whatever area they may be”, points out Suzana in this conversation with Cenários. And he issues a warning: “Knowledge is the basis of change” – and it is necessary “to have a systemic vision to compensate for nature”.

This involves bringing academia closer to farmers, in defense of forests and species. Last September, Ipê received, in partnership with Biofílica Ambipar Environment, the Environmental Finance Award, for the AR Corredores de Vida project – reforestation actions in the Paranapanema area, in the interior of São Paulo.

Below are key excerpts from the conversation.

What did Instituto Ipê do to win this award?

Our focus is to treat biodiversity as Brazil’s greatest value. We are a unique country, with wealth that no one else has, and we need to save it by any means necessary. One of our tasks is to mitigate human actions in degraded environments. In Pontal do Paranapanema, where we were born, what was left of the deforestation was the Morro do Diabo Park – and our commitment was to save the black lion tamarin there, considered extinct 70 years ago. My husband Cláudio was doing his doctorate and focused on the monkey. I entered the mission with the educational part and social issues. The goal was to create forest areas to connect isolated species – without which inbreeding problems arise.

In large-scale tree planting. Today, we are planting a million trees a year. We worked a lot with farmers and settlers in Pontal. They plant native species and we buy them. The settlers improve their lives and the green is grateful.

In this regard, farmers are seen by many people as destroyers. How is this relationship?

In everything new there is a certain resistance. The history of Paranapanema is dramatic, even Agent Orange was used – the same defoliant used in Vietnam – in a place where black lion tamarins, jaguars, butterflies live together… Yes, sometimes it is difficult to open a dialogue. But there has been a significant change, today the farmers are participating, legalizing the land, streams and forests. And the carbon credit doesn’t go to them, it goes to the company that provides us with the resources to restore. It is a process in which lawyers from Ipê, Biofílica Ambipar and also the landowners enter. Our role is to show that all sides win in this game. As an environmental educator, I warn that we need to establish new values ​​in this dialogue.

Promote education, right?

That’s the basis. You deal with many complexities, in the case of Ipê, to make this compensation with nature. And you have to have a systemic view. We are part of a web of life. Recent data show that, since the 1970s, practically 70% of the existing species on the planet are being impacted by the environment. And who is doing this? It’s us. Therefore, it is urgent to place full emphasis on environmental education, on sustainability. And you can’t wait too long, we’re at the tipping point, the point of no return. That is to say: we need a change of attitude.

Change in what way?

Treat biodiversity as a real value. Rebuild, in some way, all our environmental bodies, which have been dismantled. And inspect.

How to supervise such a big country?

This is already happening. We have organizations like Map-Biomas and Imazon, which can help. We have a lot of data at hand. So it’s a matter of political will.

Education is important but our intelligence is migrating outwards. How do we get out of this?

I think that some environmentalists just don’t migrate because they know that the environmental wealth is here. See, what is the dream for the Amazon? It’s about building real knowledge about biodiversity, in order to compete with the invasion of soy and cattle. The standing forest has to be worth more than soybeans and cattle.

Think of a strategy to reach this achievement?

I believe you have to have three factors together – research, investments and companies. I really believe in applied knowledge, I would love to see groups of experts from different areas, based on data, tracing the Brazil of tomorrow. And it is necessary to treat the country in its integrity. Knowing that biodiversity is a treasure and that if we lose it there is no way to get it back.

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