Movimento RecriAR promotes several actions aimed at the environment and sustainability
RecriAR Voluntários Sustentáveis is a project that seeks to promote environmental awareness, sustainability, recovery of degraded areas and the reduction of the pollution process.
Roberto Guião, professor at UNIFOA, University Centre of Volta Redonda, group volunteer, responsible for Dr. Catador, a composting company, and CEA, which hosted the RecriAR committee, of which he is also a volunteer, took part in the event Tempo de Plantar 2021, explains de beginnings and evolution of RecriAR.
“The movement started with students from the Environmental Engineering Course at UniFOA – Centro Universitário de Volta Redonda, in 2018, when we participated in World Cleanup Day, cleaning rivers and streams in some parts of the city. The movement grew into this group of volunteers who have been systematically supporting several socio-environmental actions. We are always willing to participate in and assist with such events.”
RecriAR represented the Tempo de Plantar regenerative movement on December 5, 2021, which encourages tree planting during the rainy season, between October and March. The Templo de Plantar encourages the formation of committees to carry out the planting of one million trees on the first Sunday of December.
RecriAR represented Volta Redonda, South Fluminense Region, with 60 volunteers, resulting in 70 tree seedlings planted around the CSN Employees’ Club facilities in the same location.
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Tales Profeta Gama, also known as Profeta, is an environmental engineer, businessman, and one of the movement’s founders.
“The group represents the union of good; nobody looks at who is helping, but at the whole. These actions benefit everyone, both close friends and strangers. We create unity and a significant social movement of friendship, knowledge, especially education, and environmental awareness. This is the group’s main focus. RecriAR is a beautiful, natural movement with a lot of positive energy. I want to spread this energy not only in Volta Redonda, but throughout Brazil.
Neuza Nascimento: What are the activities and actions of RecriAR Volunteers?
Profeta: Environmental education, lectures, and seedling planting are among the activities. We plan 12 actions per year, four of which have the greatest impact, and we carry out smaller actions during the other periods. Every year, we carry out an action on World Cleanup Day, which is our first action and the one that brings the most people together. On that day, we clean rivers and streams and gvie environmental education lectures. We usually enter the Cachoeirinha and Brando riverbeds, which are accessible and have a low riverbed here in Volta Redonda. No raw sewage is dumped into them.
A portion of the group removes garbage from the riverbed, creating a visual impact, while other volunteers remain on the banks promoting environmental education. When people see us cleaning the river, they become curious and ask what we are doing. The volunteers are then given the opportunity to explain the significance of keeping the riverbed clean. At that time, they use the opportunity to teach environmental education, such as how to properly dispose of garbage and when the garbage truck collects recyclable material on each one’s streets, among other useful information.
In short, we do a promotion to raise awareness, and during the conversation, we realise how we can improve our communication with the population, and what the public authorities cannot or are not interested in, we want to supply in some way. We also hope to extend these actions to the most isolated communities, where there is little or no access to information, despite the fact that many people are unconcerned about what is going on.
Profeta goes on to say that a new law is about to be introduced in the state of Rio de Janeiro to make environmental education mandatory in schools, which he believes is critical and should have happened a long time ago.
Neuza Nascimento: How do the lectures take place?
Profeta: Lectures are always objective and targeted, for example, on Children’s Day, all activities are aimed at captivating children. Planting is carried out in a different way, telling stories and playing games. The idea is to adapt the action to the target audience of the day to facilitate learning.
More testimonials
Fausto Junior, director of the CSN Employees’ Club, RecriAr volunteer, and one of the founders of CEA – Volta Redonda Environmental Education Center, discusses the Employees’ Club and the significance of the activities that take place on its premises.
“I’m just arriving at RecriAR, and having this group of volunteers here at the club to plant trees was a huge honour. The Employees’ Club is a multidisciplinary space where all sustainability issues can be addressed. And the club as a whole is a small piece of urban forest, with a forest remnant, numerous animals, and a diverse flora and fauna. RecriAR’s contribution is to implement sustainability and use it as a counter-example to society.”
Beatriz Alves de Oliveira, one of the event’s coordinators and co-founders, says that, in addition to the environmental issue, educational lectures have been given to companies such as the Cooperativa de Catadores de Reciclados from Pinheiral, a municipality in Rio de Janeiro, during the events. There we held a specific lecture on recycling, and we are open to invitations from other companies in other fields, because when it comes to sustainability, recycling and the environment, the more people who receive information, the better it will be for Planet Earth
Additional actions
During the planting, José Arimathéia de Oliveira, an IFRJ – Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro professor, RecriAR volunteer, and Volta Redonda resident, gave a short talk to the group. He was speaking about the situation in Volta Redonda, but he could have been talking about any other Brazilian city, as pollution levels have recently dramatically increased, if not in all, in most cities.
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“We don’t always feel co-responsible for everything that happens; we live in an extremely polluted city with a high level of pollution in the atmosphere. Forests are one of the tools we have to reduce this impact. The tree, when formed, has the ability to retain dust in the leaves because it, like us, perspires, and the leaves, when wet, especially at night due to dew, retain the dust. As a result, if we want to improve our quality of life, we should plant a tree near our home.
There are several advantages to planting trees, particularly in Volta Redonda, such as a reduction in dust circulating in the atmosphere and temperature variation, both inside and outside the shade or a forest; as well as being used as a home for several native species, which live with us in the city after we expelled them from their homes with the buildings.
Planting a tree seedling in your neighbourhood square or on your front porch not only provides food for birds, bats, bees, and other species, but also allows them to survive and live in the same space as us. Because they don’t have many options for travel.
The movement that RecriAR is spearheading with partners is critical, as this planting was another attempt to return a portion of what we take from nature.”
RecriAR partnerships in the execution of the event
Apoio Summersanduiche
