Thesuccessof
theGreen IsLife
Projectdidnothappen
bychance, but itscredit
goes totheworkand
support fromschools
andmunicipalities, ina
longwalkonbehalf of
thesameobjective
AdalbertoSidneiHuve,
generalcoordinator
T
he idea is to take to communities – especially farmers – information relat-
ed to preservation and environmental protection. This has been the pur-
pose of the Green Is Life Project, a program that turned 25 on 8 August
2016, focused on socio-environmental action, run by the Tobacco Grow-
ers’ Association of Brazil (Afubra). Since its beginning, the project has al-
ways adjusted to the environmental legislation in force, contributing towards the de-
Afubra’sGreenIs
LifeProjectturns
25andcelebrates
countless
partnerships
withschool
communitiesin
SouthBrazil
velopment of the communities assisted by Afubra in the southern states of Brazil.
Environmental education is the main tool used in the implementation of the proj-
ect’s guidelines.
The special day was commemorated with the launch of the book Green Is Life
Project – 25 years of experience. The publication was launched by Afubra during a
special breakfast ceremony attended by authorities, leaderships, professors and the
press, at the headquarters of the association, in Santa Cruz do Sul (RS). Two thou-
sand copies of the 70-page book were printed. The author of the publication is José
Leon Macedo, pedagogical coordinator of the project.
Many years before creating the Life Is Green, in August 1991, Afubra had already
been involved with environmental protection projects. President Benício Albano
Werner recalls that the concern with the sustainability of the rural properties started
in fact back in 1978, when congress passed a law banning the cutting of native trees.
At that time, and still nowadays, the tobacco farmers need to burn wood for curing
their tobacco. In view of this, the supply chain started staging campaigns urging the
farmers to complywith legislation. One of the initiativeswas the distribution of seeds
and tree seedlings to encourage the farmers to adhere to reforestation, with an eye
towards the production of fuelwood. In 1981, as a manner to lend support to the to-
bacco farmers and produce evidence of awareness efforts towards this end, Afubra
and Sindifumo, nowknown as SindiTabacco – Interstate Tobacco Industry Union, en-
tered into an agreement with the the IBDF, now known as Brazilian Institute of En-
vironment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), to encourage reforestation
projects in the rural setting. The initiative progressed from the distribution of seed-
lings to wood to be utilized for different purposes, thus benefiting the environment.
Green
world
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