There will be a competition to get schools to paint trees made of PVC to be displayed in the Terreiro do Paço in Lisbon. The idea is to repeat the success of the Cow Parade, which travelled all over the country. A white tree made of plastic (PVC) about a metre and a half high, can now start to be painted by pupils at the Bernardo Passos secondary school EB2,3 in São Brás de Alportel. It was the first of a set of 77 trees to be delivered to schools which joined in the “Tree Parade” competition all over the country.

The initiative, which is jointly organised by the Ministries of Agriculture and Education, through the Directorate-General of Forestry Resources and the Directorate-General of Innovation and Curriculum Development, will include six schools in the Algarve: in Loulé, participating schools are EB2,3 Cavaco Silva in Boliqueime, and the EB2,3 Sousa Agostinho in Almancil.

In Albufeira, the competing school is EB2,3 Francisco Cabrita, in Lagoa EB2,3 Jacinto Correia, and in Lagos EB2,3 nº1.

The idea is to stress the importance of forestry resources in schools first of all and then with the wider public, as well as the need to find ways of enhancing their value and protecting them, and avoiding forest fires.

Each school will paint its own tree, which will then be assessed by a jury. The schools winning the first three prizes will win computers, digital cameras and printers with the support of Worten, the private partner in the initiative. At the end, in June, all the trees will be exhibited in the Terreiro do Paço in Lisbon for two weeks and then in Porto in the Av. dos Aliados. Registration for the competition has already closed but information about the competition can be obtained at http://castanea.dgrf.min-agricultura.pt/dfci/index.php.

José Pedreira, Deputy Secretary of State for Education, said that they had chosen the Algarve to launch the competition because, in contrast with what may appear to be the case, the sea and the forest are interconnected. He said that it was the forest that provided the wood for the ships for the Discoveries, and the forest was essentially our guarantee for the future.

The occasion also served to launch a guide to citizenship and environmental education, and about the Portuguese forestry heritage, aimed at teachers and educators, which will be available on-line on the Ministry of Education’s site (http://www.min-edu.pt/).

“Carbon sequestrators”

Rui Nobre Gonçalves, Secretary of State for Rural Development and Forests, stressed the economic importance of forest. He said that forests were an important economic resource which must be put to good use and that it was a sector that could generate a lot of jobs.

He said that in the Algarve there is the example of cork, but there is also carob, which has seen a growth in planting in recent years.

He added that in addition to the traditional rows of trees, we have to make use of plant biomass, as well as the potential of the forest to “sequestrate” carbon, something that will increase in importance in the coming years.

The idea is that forestry producers should be compensated in relation to the quantity of carbon dioxide that their forests absorb, and enter a global market in which this factor has economic value.

source: algarve observer