Recuperação de área degradada com utilização de resíduos sólidos domésticos – estudo de caso

Abstract

In various rural regions of Bahia State, areas degraded by human activity are common occurrence, whereby the functions, provided by the natural ecosystems are severely compromised. Traditionally, the recovery of such degraded areas involved logistically complex and financially costly programs. In such small rural communities, solid domestic residues (i.e., garbage; SDR) are frequently free of chemically complex substances. Nonetheless, appropriate disposal of SDR is required to minimize health concerns. To this effect, the infrastructure to manage such SDR in such small rural communities is often lacking, or the safe transport of SDR to other localities remains costly. Here, I envisioned that such relatively chemically „simple‟ SDR might be used for the recuperation of degraded areas that occur in nearby proximity to these rural communities. Succinctly, within degraded areas, SDR may be buried in 200 x 500 x 200 cm (W. L. D., respectively) trenches, before local seedlings are planted overtop. After the degraded areas are recovered, they would both be useful as recovered biodiversity corridors for the region as well as future agricuitral areas, provided that they are monitored. The precolombian indians buried their domestic wastes - sometimes they burned that. That primitive system of waste management used by pre-Colombian tribes, and they are still observed as cientists study the Amazon indigenous peoples. Given the relative logistic simplicity of this measure, along with reducing the costs inherent to the disposal of SDR to distantly located areas, this methodology could undergo a wide usage for recuperating degraded areas within rural Bahia State, along with reducing disposal needs. To determine the suitability of this approach, a pilot project was undertaken at Fazendas Reunidas Vale do Juliana, whereby trenches were dug in a nearby degraded forest clearing and filed with SDR. The results of this pilot project demonstrated high levels of recuperation whereby much of the degraded area was densely covered by growing vegetation after only two years post-intervention. As a broad view such measures are based on the principles that in rural communities, collecting SDR is often lacking, such that the final destination for these is either inappropriate or involves expensive transportation costs. Thus, the use of DSR disposed in trenches for recuperation of degraded areas combines two advantages, namely, reducing the costs associated with SDR disposal while promoting the recuperation of these degraded areas. Long term studies will be necessary to monitor the recovery path, along with determining is deleterious effects associated with SDR burial exists.