The Amazonas Government formalizes a partnership for the construction of a Forest School unit in Carauari

The Amazonas Government signed on March 4^th a partnership with international entrepreneurs for the implementation of a unit of the Escola da Floresta (Forest School) project, in the municipality of Carauari (788 kilometres from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state). The project will be executed with resources from the donation of R$ 7.4 million from the companies BR ARBO Gestão Florestal S.A., from Brazil, and GIBBI SRL, from Italy.

Participating in the meeting, in addition to company representatives, were state secretaries Arlete Mendonça (Education), Eduardo Taveira (Environment) and Flávio Antony (Civil House); in addition to the director-president of the Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute (Ipaam), Juliano Valente.

According to Amazonas state governor Wilson Lima, the partnership recently agreed with businessmen representing BR ARBO Gestão Florestal S.A. and GIBBI SRL will boost the Amazonas government’s efforts to promote socio-environmental education in state conservation units.

«We are very happy to be working together to carry out this project and for choosing Amazonas to make this investment, a state where we are creating many opportunities to attract this type of partnership,» said Wilson Lima.

The companies’ decision to invest in the construction and purchase of equipment and furniture for another Forest School is in line with overarching aims of the Mejuruá Project, which they are running and which foresees positive and significant environmental and social effects for local communities with social investments of US$ 40 million.

The first unit of the Forest School project is being built by the state with its own resources in the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), in São Sebastião do Uatumã (247 kilometres from Manaus). The Forest School is a project coordinated by the State Department of Education and work on the Uatumã RDS began in 2023 and is already 80% complete.

Two other schools are also included in the project: one in the Caverna do Maroaga Environmental Protection Area (APA), in the municipality of Presidente Figueiredo (117 kilometres from Manaus), and another in the Piagaçu Purus Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), in Beruri (173 kilometres from Manaus).

Escola da Floresta is part of the Educa+Amazonas Program, launched in 2021 by governor Wilson Lima, which seeks to expand, in the state network, environmental education based on socio-environmental sustainability models, with the development of appropriate technologies. The objective is to transform teaching units into spaces of democratic management, respecting sociocultural diversity and human rights. When launching the Escola da Floresta initiative, Governor Lima explained that the schools were designed to have a low environmental impact, with solar energy capture panels, a natural ventilation system, wide accessibility and easy maintenance. “It is a school with a sustainability concept, with certified wood, reclaimed wood, reuse of rainwater, an effluent treatment plant, community gardens and all content focused on these sustainability issues”,  he emphasized.