Kimberly-Clark and CI are working with partners, including major Brazilian pulp and paper companies and local civil society organizations, to develop and implement new models for large-scale conservation and sustainable production in landscapes with significant plantation forest footprints. These “sustainable forest mosaics” help ensure sensitive landscapes meet multiple demands, including fiber production from plantation forests, food production on agricultural lands, and biodiversity protection, carbon storage, and water services in natural forests.
In the Central Atlantic Forest Biodiversity Corridor of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest (southern Bahia and Espirito Santos states), one of the world’s Biodiversity Hotspots and a prime area for plantation forests, CI, Kimberly-Clark, Brazilian NGO Instituto BioAtlântica, and three Brazilian pulp and paper companies – Fibria, Vercael and Suzano – joined together in 2007 to implement an innovative strategy: 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.
The model has proven so successful that it is now being replicated throughout the Atlantic Forest region, with additional companies and NGOs joining together to implement mosaics in additional plantation forestry landscapes. There is additional potential to expand the model to other regions of the world where plantation forestry is expanding as well.
LEARN MORE: The Sustainable Forest Mosaics factsheet
The Mosaic partners have also come together in the international and Brazilian Forest Dialogues, initiatives which seek to bridge the private sector and civil society to promote the conservation and sustainable use of forests – the same concepts being implemented through the Sustainable Forest Mosaics Initiative.
Kimberly-Clark is a leading global health and hygiene company. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with operations in 35 countries, Kimberly-Clark’s global brands (such as Kleenex, Scott, Andrex, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Poise and Depend) are sold in more than 150 countries.
For more information on Kimberly-Clark, please visit www.kimberly-clark.com.