Amid worldwide concern about the preservation of the Amazon, the target of burning and deforestation, the Brazilian company Mahogany Roraima shows how it has combined recovery of degraded areas and sustainable economic development.
As the press and governments around the world turn their attention and concerns to indiscriminate burning and deforestation in the Amazon, the most concrete examples of how it is possible to combine accelerated recovery of degraded areas and economic development are flourishing.
Fourth largest African mahogany production company in the world, Mahogany Roraima, with a branch in Boa Vista, has developed its own structure and state-of-the-art technology to plant 200 hectares per day (4,000 ha / year) with only 39 people in one area. total 90,000 ha – the goal is to reach 2021 with 13,000 hectares of seedlings planted and, in ten years, 40,000 ha, creating the largest mahogany production company in the world.
On another front, the company is investing in a sustainable reforestation project that will rebuild a liability of 172,000 hectares of devastated native forest, producing wood that could generate future profits for landowners – they can harvest 20% of trees in reforested areas to management.
Until the time comes for logging, the company-funded Agroforestry project empowers small farmers to grow and market fruit and vegetables within forested areas.
Making money from reforestation and working conditions for workers to survive while preserving the environment as much as possible, Mahogany Roraima meets the main goals of the international booklet of sustainable economic development. Thus, it shows that there are alternatives amidst the chaos in which we live on the environmental issue. “Including regional alternatives. A hope for large-scale reforestation projects, ”says businessman Marcello Guimarães, chairman of Mahogany Roraima.
Operationalization
Mahogany Roraima has developed state-of-the-art technology for planting your seedlings: a 100% automatic “forest planting” machine created by Marcello that simplifies and speeds up the process. It also allows a planned distribution of native species, contributing to the development and preservation of biodiversity in reforested areas.
The planting is already being done by the company in the state of Roraima on two fronts:
· Reforestation in devastated areas, with agricultural partnership: the company plants in third-party areas, bearing the costs and, in return, gets carbon credits (*) and wood management in the future. The partner owner gets 20% of the value produced;
· Planting in own areas: with investments coming from specific reforestation funds, such as those in Norway and the Roraima government itself.
Mahogany Roraima’s total investment in the mahogany planting project alone should total R$ 487 million in ten years. The estimated financial return is R$ 14 billion over 40 years, considering amounts paid today by African mahogany: R$ 5,000 per cubic meter sawed (each hectare planted results in 150 m3 of wood).
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