Amid worldwide concern about preserving 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 timber that could generate future profits for landowners – they could 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).
Refugee Support
Another proof of the citizen conscience in moving Mahogany Roraima’s leaders is their participation in Operation Welcomed – interagency humanitarian action, conducted in Brazil by the Armed Forces, Government and Federal Police – which consists in intermediating the hiring of Venezuelan refugees by proven companies.
According to official estimates, more than 32,000 Venezuelans living in Roraima today have mass immigrated to Brazil via the Boa Vista border since 2015, fleeing the economic and political chaos of their country.
Mahogany Roraima currently employs 15 Venezuelans directly and 40 indirectly, in functions such as general services, cook, nurseryman, tractor driver, agricultural designer, among others linked to the planting of mahogany forests.
Through production in the Agroforestry, the company will also provide the Army every three months with enough food to feed 6,000 refugee families – 2,000 a month.
Promoting citizenship
And as part of its drive for sustainable economic development, the company has partnered with the Boa Vista City Hall and the Roraima State Government to create an environmental education project. Through the agreement, classes will be given within the company, visits to the seedling nursery, forests and agroforestry, as well as an educational and playful film. “We need to teach everyone why preserving forests and planting trees is so important,” concludes Marcello Guimarães.
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(*) REFORESTATION IS GOOD BUSINESS
The carbon credit market emerged from the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that set reduction targets – 5.2% on average compared to 1990 levels – in greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was then created, which provides for certified emission reductions. Once this certification has been achieved, those who promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are entitled to carbon credits that can be traded with countries with goals to be met.
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