News
Children celebrate during Veracel Tree Week - 09.28.04
Around 11:00 a.m. on Monday, September 20, 2004 two buses filled with teachers and students from Era Nova, a district of the municipality of Canavieiras, pulled into the Veracel Station for a visit to private Atlantic Forest Reserve located on the border of Porto Seguro and Santa Cruz Cabrália. Their arrival marked the kickoff of Veracel Tree Week 2004, run from September 20 through 24. The event made it possible for some 450 1st to 4th grade students of the rural zones from the surrounding region to learn more about the importance of environmental preservation.
And they were an excited bunch. The majority had never visited the ecological reserve or even been in a place with such a large variety of trees. One of the attractions of the event was a play, “Daphne, the Tree Nymph,”presented by the Aprender Brincando puppet troupe from Santa Cruz Cabrália. This piece of theater gave the attentive spectators a message about conserving nature. Next, the students were taken to an area near the forest reserve where they planted some 500 Atlantic Forest species seedlings.
On Tuesday, when it was the turn of students from Eunápolis and Porto Seguro, seedling planting was followed by a round of applause for the trees. Each child, with this gesture, contributed to the formation of a new forest of some 70,000 hectares that will help Veracel recover and conserve the native forest. Each year, the company recovers 400 hectares of degraded land on its property as part of the Veracel Atlantic Forest Program.