How can a forestry company reduce deforestation in the Brazilian rainforest, improve local livelihoods and protect biodiversity–all while making a profit?
While unsustainable logging continues to threaten some of the country’s tropical forests, leading forestry companies are working with Conservation International (CI) and other partners to pursue a new model of development that could revolutionize the forestry system for the benefit of communities, species and businesses worldwide.
Providing for Millions
By carefully planning the locations and intersections of natural reserves, protected areas, plantations, agricultural land, infrastructure and settlements throughout a broad landscape, stakeholders can optimize conservation efforts while simultaneously generating employment and income for nearby communities.
Stretching along the eastern coast of Brazil, the Atlantic Forest is the cornerstone of the country’s economy. Along with extractable resources like timber, the forest provides innumerable other services for people and species. They absorb carbon from the atmosphere, prevent erosion and filter fresh water–all of which sustain the watersheds that provide for cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil’s two largest cities. Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo comprise the country’s biggest industrial hub and are home to over 20 million people who ultimately depend on the forest for water.
The central role of the Atlantic Forest for Brazil is especially alarming in light of the fact that only 8 percent of the original forest remains today, threatened primarily by land conversion for agriculture and unsustainable forestry practices.
Pulp and paper companies are among the largest landowners in the region. In the past, less sustainable land management practices and a large footprint exposed forestry companies to social and environmental criticism. However, in recent years many of these companies have changed the way they operate, incorporating environmental conservation, better management of plantations and livelihood support into their operations.
A Mosaic for Land-Use
In order to balance production and conservation in the Central Atlantic Forest Corridor, CI-Brazil, Instituto BioAtlântica,
Kimberly-Clark and three local forestry groups are implementing an innovative strategy in the states of Bahia and Espirito Santo: the creation of ‘
mosaic landscapes’.
In the same way that a mosaic brings together different materials and shapes to create a cohesive whole, mosaic landscapes integrate many different types of land into an interconnected, sustainable system.
In order to create these mosaics, landowners and other stakeholders survey the landscape to determine:
- which areas are most suitable for productive activities like forestry or agriculture,
- which places are the most crucial to protect in order to conserve water, store carbon and provide other ecosystem benefits, and
- what habitats are critical for survival of the species that we depend on.
By carefully planning the locations and intersections of natural reserves, protected areas, plantations, agricultural land, infrastructure and settlements throughout a broad landscape, stakeholders can optimize conservation efforts while simultaneously generating employment and income for nearby communities.
Although the use of tree plantations is often controversial, they can have positive environmental and social impacts when they are designed correctly. Forest companies give local people an opportunity to generate income by serving as “outgrowers,” growing trees that supplement those produced on company-owned plantations. As the trees grow, they can connect fragments of natural forest and provide many of the same services that those forests do, including carbon storage, species habitat and freshwater filtration.
Christine Dragisic, the Senior Manager of Agricultural Markets for CI’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB) program, puts the plantation issue in perspective. “The more wood we can get from sustainably-managed plantations, the more we can relieve pressure on natural forests.”
Replicating Success
Jose Nivaldo Pianizolli (on right), farmer/outgrower, with grandaughter and son.
© CI/Photo by Christine DragisicSo far, more than 600 hectares (almost 1,500 acres) of forest company-owned degraded land have been restored, and more than 8,000 hectares (more than 19,700 acres) of private conservation reserves have been created or improved.
The success of the mosaic landscape model in Bahia and Espirito Santo is the first step in a movement that we hope to expand from the regional to national scale. The program is already beginning to replicate the model in adjacent states in the Atlantic Forest; the next step will be introducing mosaic forests into other countries, such as China and Indonesia.
The implementation of this complex mosaic system requires involvement and coordination between a wide range of stakeholders, including local, regional and national government agencies, forestry companies, nonprofits and private landowners. In the words of Beto Mesquita, executive director of local partner Instituto BioAtlântica, “The activities of the Forest Mosaics Project have resulted in greater cooperation between the teams of the conservation organizations and the companies involved, contributing to better planning of natural heritage protection activities and forest restoration in the region. “
With coalitions like these–the support and leadership of international corporations, local communities and like-minded groups–CI is helping to ensure that the forestry industry continues to progress on a sustainable path.