At the time it was created in 1987, the Forest Nursery of the Tobacco Grow-
ers’ Association of Brazil (Afubra) came as a pioneer initiative in the central re-
gion in Rio Grande do Sul. “It has always been focused on the conservation of the
natural resources, and on the production of fast growing trees to meet the wood
needs of the rural properties, especially tobacco farming holdings”, says Juarez
Pedroso, manager of the Agroforestry Production department at Afubra. He re-
calls that it all started with the production of native forest species, and the high-
light, at that time, were wild fruit trees.
According to Pedroso, at the start, all efforts were concentrated on creating envi-
ronmental awareness among the farmers and the communities, where Afubra op-
erates, in particular with regard to the remaining forests, which, back then, required
special attention. “Therefore, for many years the entity provided for thousands of
seedlingsthatcomplementeddomesticorchards,wereplantedalongsidewalksand
in yards, or even for the establishment of woodlots in SouthBrazil”, he explains.
In the sequence, seedlings of fast growing and exotic trees were added to the
forest nursery, intended to meet the needs of the farmers in terms of wood and
solid construction timber. It marked the beginning of the production of eucalyp-
tus, black acacia and pinus seedlings. Each species with its purpose, but in the
end the real objective consisted in meeting different demands of the farmers.
Furthermore, Afubra created the Forest Nursery promotion program to encour-
age the production of seedlings intended to broaden the scope and the ease of
access to seedlings by the farmers.
In 1990, the association promoted the first Forest Nursery course, jointly with
Seedlings for forest
conservation
Since its start in 1987, ‘Forest Nursery’ pursues
the conservationof native forests and is also
focused on supplyingwood for different purposes
the Forest Research Center (Cepef) of the Feder-
al University of Santa Maria (UFSM). “This is just
one more peculiarity of Afubra’s nursery, which
has always been open to the community, pro-
viding for the exchange of experiences and for
capacity building opportunities (at technical
and higher education level), among others”, the
manager comments.
InPedroso’s view, thedirect importanceof the
nursery for the environment is something rather
difficult to appraise. “However, there is no mis-
take in stating that many clients acquire these
seedlings to restore degraded forests, or make
up for environmental impacts, environmental ed-
ucation programs or for mandatory forest com-
pensation”, he explains. The nursery has equally
been ready to meet all the needs of the tobacco
farmers. Now, many farmers are asking for clonal
eucalyptus (GPC 23), for the advantages its offers
compared to other seedlings coming fromseeds.
Thousands of native
and exotic tree
seedlings have been
produced in this site
Divulgação
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