Guilherme Harnoud Evaristo

Biodiversity and drainage basins

The Social-Environmental Institute Rio dos Peixes (ISARP) is an Organization of Civil Society for Public Interests (OSCIP, a kind of non-governmental organization), founded on March 22, 2007. The main activity of the ISARP is focused on the drainage basin of the Pirai River by means of environmental projects towards the conservation, preservation and recovery of the natural resources on this area, involving environmental education for the public in general in order to alert and point out the main environmental concerns for the local area and global concerns as well.
The exposition about the importance of the natural hydric resources preservation and rational use of the water are outstanding subjects for the public's conscience about the harmful, dangerous and unrepeatable consequences it can cause for the human being as well as for the environment if such matters are relegated as of worthless importance.
The Pirai River supplies about 30% of the potable water to the city of Joinville. However, to guarantee the maintenance of this water supply is essential the conservation and preservation of the forests, because they work like a "nature sponge", receiving, supplying and releasing, little by little, the supplied rain waters.
The drainage basin of the Pirai River belongs to the atlantic forest, which is one of the most tropical forests threatened of extinction. The atlantic forest in the past covered 100% of the territory of Santa Catarina State, while nowadays it is left less than 15%.
Not only the direct action on the forests must be motive of worry concerning environment. There are environmental relations that are closely related to biological organisms in a way that the injuries caused to one of them affect all the biological net of other organisms with huge consequences. A classical example are the pollinizers.
There are some specimens of plants which flowers are pollinated only by one specific specimen. This is due to the biological process called co-evolution, where two specimens evolve in an integrated way, establishing a mutual dependence.
These processes contributed for the appearing of the great biodiversity typical of the tropical forests. Therefore, the conservation of the natural water fountains that supply water to the cities depends on the conservation of the biodiversity, once the caused impacts will certainly affect directly or indirectly the form of the forests that compound the drainage basin, what will consequently shorten the availability and quality of the water on these fountains.