Copel has more than 14 thousand hectares of Permanent Preservation Areas – PPAs around its reservoirs, which have been managed since 2005 by the Ciliar Forests Subprogram.
In the implementation of hydroelectric power plants, with the filling of reservoirs, previously anthropized and altered areas become APPs, requiring actions to protect and restore the native vegetation cover. The objective of the restoration and protection of the APPs is to comply with the environmental legislation in effect and with the requirements of the environmental licensing of Copel GeT’s undertakings.
Activities are carried out to diagnose the areas, analyze the most suitable restoration techniques for the specific conditions, aiming to subsidize the planning of implantation, maintenance, and monitoring activities. Among the implementation activities are the fencing of areas, planting of tree seedlings of native species, green manure, enrichment, direct seeding (muvuca), nucleation, and conduction of natural regeneration, among others.
In addition to the environmental benefits, the coverage of the APPs with native vegetation also provides functional benefits to the hydroelectric power plant reservoirs, such as the reduction of sediment carriage, avoiding silting and reducing margin erosion, and may also increase the water flow and increase their useful life.
The program aims to protect and restore the degraded APPs by adopting the most appropriate techniques for each situation, in order to accelerate the reestablishment of the ecological functions, expanding the connectivity between forest fragments and the genetic flow of fauna and flora, and also contributing to the maintenance and improvement of ecosystem services and climate regulation.
