In April 2021, NGO Guardiões do Mar began the Projeto Guanabara Verde, in partnership with the Instituto Mar Urbano and funded by OceanPact. The project involves replanting 12 hectares of mangrove with 30,000 native plants in the Guapi-Mirim Environmental Protection Area and carrying out environmental education activities to share concepts and best practices about ocean culture and conservation of coastal ecosystems.
All the activities conducted in the Guapi-Mirim Environmental Protection Area, on the east side of Guanabara Bay, were designed in alignment with the principles of the United Nations’ Decade of Oceans and Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
“We decided to fund the restoration of mangrove areas, seeing that they have many benefits for the environment. This work will restore important areas for the reproduction of many species of fish, mollusks and crustaceans, protect Guanabara Bay from silting, generate income and food security for the local community and also capture more carbon per hectare than onshore forests. At the same time, we will carry out several studies to document this work, promote scientific debate and quantify all these benefits, with the idea of replicating this kind of activity across the country, bringing on board more companies that want to join us to support these initiatives and offset their carbon emissions in the near future,” explains Flavio Andrade, OceanPact’s CEO.
The project will last 37 months. The first tree was planted on Monday, July 26, 2021, International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem. In addition to Flavio Andrade, the launch ceremony was attended by Ana Lyra, OceanPact’s sustainability manager; Ricardo Gomes, the director of the Instituto Mar Urbano; and Nina Gomes, OceanPact’s youth ambassador for environmental awareness. The project’s educational activities will be carried out with the 143rd Ocean Scouts Group, based in the Vale das Pedrinhas neighborhood in the municipality of Guapimirim.