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7/1/20

Environment

Carajás: Initiative to protect Amazon Rainforest helps prevent global warming

Vale and Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity Conservation) signed off on Horizontes Project to expand the recovery of areas surrounding existing conservation units.

Six protected units in the Carajás region form the largest area of continuous Amazon rainforest in the south and southeast of Pará. Forest conservation helps reduce global warming as it creates a carbon stock that offsets greenhouse gas pollution. The area is protected by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) with support from Vale. The partnership for environmental conservation was reinforced with a new project, called Horizontes, which should increase reforestation and foster the sustainable use of areas surrounding these units. 

Satellite images track the evolution of land use and occupation in the region and show that the protected area is the only existing piece of conserved land to date. “What we see in our region today is an island of vegetation (protected conservation units) surrounded by degraded pastures,” explained André Macedo, head of the Integrated Management Center of ICMBio in Carajás.
From satellite images, it is possible to follow the evolution of land use and occupation in the region and see that only the protected area remains conserved to date. Source: MDPI / Remote Sensing.
 
Macedo pointed out that “the project was specifically designed to recover these areas around the units with the implementation of agroforestry systems that combine planting of agricultural species and tree species to form ecological corridors, which will help protect the soil while fostering generation of income and conservation of rivers, also reducing the greenhouse effect.”
 
Leonardo Neves, Vale’s Environment Manager in Pará, reinforced the purpose of the project. “We want to turn this area into a successful environmental conservation reference, as it is already seen inside the units.”
 
The Carajás units comprise over one million hectares of forest protected by Vale worldwide, a carbon stock of approximately 600 million tons of CO2.
 
In addition to the Horizontes project, the company has announced new measures to fight global warming. The measures are aligned with the Paris Agreement, entered into force by 195 countries with the target to limit global warming to well below 2°C by 2100.
 
Within this global pact, Vale will invest at least US$2 billion to reduce its direct and indirect absolute emissions (scopes 1 and 2) by 33% by 2030. Direct emissions come from its operations, and indirect emissions come from external sources involved in the production process, such as electric power consumption. Other targets include recovering and protecting more than 500,000 hectares of native forest over 10 years and self-generate 100% of electric power from clean sources.
 

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