Emater presents results of public policies for family farming at COP 30
Actions for land regularization and climate justice were presented in panels at the Pará Pavilion, in the Greenzone, at the City Park, in Belém
At the Pará Pavilion of COP 30 (30th Conference of the United Nations on Climate Emergencies), in Belém, the president of the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of the State of Pará (Emater), Joniel Abreu, participated sequentially in two strategic debates for family farming in Pará: on environmental regularization for small and medium rural producers in general and on climate justice for traditional peoples - especially quilombolas.
The event, held last Tuesday (18), addressed "Environmental Regularization of Family Farming: Basis for Socio-environmental Policies and Sustainable Production in the Amazon," under the coordination of the State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainability (Semas). The president of Emater, Joniel Abreu, highlighted the role of the institution in issuing Cars (Rural Environmental Registries), in the Payment for Environmental Services (PSA) program, in the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA), and in monitoring properties using geotechnologies.
"Emater makes contact face-to-face, through the extension worker, in the field, within the proposal of awareness, mobilization, until the farmer's adherence to environmental regularization policies. It is the arm of the State Government with the determination of executing base policies in the 144 municipalities," Abreu defined.
The manager also assessed the importance of partnerships with other public bodies and with social organizations of farmers: "There are about 70 thousand registrations made in family farming. More than 20 thousand cars validated, allowing access to public policies, especially rural credit. The regularized area exceeds more than one million hectares of family farming. Pará reached the historic mark of 10 million hectares of validated cars in total, with active participation from Emater," he summarized.
Climate Justice
The car was indeed a central element of the panel "Living Territories: the Car for Traditional Peoples and Communities as a Tool for Sustainability and Climate Justice in the Amazon," in which the president of Emater also explained the specificities of public technical assistance and rural extension (ater) for quilombolas: "Field teams apply participatory methodologies and active listening, with respect for local culture and organization and support for agroecology, agroforestry, extractivism, food production, and income generation," he pointed out.
One of the examples of good results presented was from the quilombola community of Santa Maria do Muraiteua, in São Miguel do Guamá, in the Guajarina region. It is the first in Pará to receive a collective car, in the modality of Traditional Peoples and Communities, through the Regulariza Pará program, in an integrated strategy between Emater, Semas, and the Land Institute of Pará (Iterpa). The document was delivered on-site by Governor Helder Barbalho in October 2021.
Joniel Abreu emphasizes the protagonism of populations and communities in conducting their own rights: "Talking about traditional populations already involves a whole wealth around the diversity in the Amazon, so discussing public policy, and that was the purpose of the Panel, considers the confrontation by the State in what is the affirmation of rights, but at the risk that this right fails to meet specificities, because these populations hold ancestral knowledge and it is this knowledge that should guide the assistance, the realization, with dialogue and appreciation. And that is what Emater shows in concreteness, in day-to-day: it gives meaning, significance to public policy for these communities - both in planning and in implementation. We are showing this work to the world," he declared.
Text by Aline Miranda
