Brazil Launches Large Reforestation Program in Amazon

Brazil on Friday formally launched a large reforestation project to grow 1 billion trees in the country's Amazon area in five years.

The project, "One Billion Trees for the Amazon," was launched at an inaugural ceremony attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ana Julia Carepa, governor of the state of Para, where the Amazon situated.

At the ceremony, Lula and Carepa symbolically sowed seeds of endangered species of trees. The final target is set for 2013.

The project will involve 143 municipalities in Para to consolidate the state's image as a protector and repairer of the Amazon rainforest.

Along with the Bank of the Amazon and government-funded Banco do Brasil, the Para government will finance the program with subsidies worth 600 million U.S. dollars.

The project will benefit 120,000 agricultural producers, who will help reach almost half of the final target.

The program will also prevent the emission of over 10 million tons of carbon per year, part of Para's climate change plan aimed at reducing carbon emissions, deforestation and environmental degradation.

Additionally, the Brazilian government will set up a research center to study native species in the Amazon, and develop technology for the genetic improvement of species.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1412098/brazil_launches_large_reforestation_program_in_amazon/

Private forest a model to protect Amazon

Reforestation & sustainable forestry

While Brazilian authorities struggle to contain the rate of illegal deforestation of the Amazon, a selective logging operation with government backing is being hailed as a model for sustainable forestry and rainforest conservation.

Local paper and pulp manufacturer Orsa runs a private forestry operation on a 1.7 million hectare property beside the Jari River in the northern state of Para. The company owns the land on which the native rainforest stands and conserves the forest within a programme of selective logging.

The international Forest Stewardship Council has given the operation its blessing and certifies the timber produced, inspecting the operation twice a year since harvesting began five years ago.

Trees are only harvested at a similar rate to the natural regeneration rate of the forest and logging is conducted in a way that protects surrounding trees and avoids collateral damage to the forest and its biodiversity.

The timber is inventoried and certified for use in the manufacture of wood products. The company boasts it can tell any overseas customer of end-products like furniture exactly which tree it was made from.

Around 400 local people are employed in the operation, some as forest security guards. Others are allowed access to the forest to collect material for making products including baskets and jewellery, and in so doing also help monitor and protect the forest from illegal loggers. They say the income they receive is meagre but welcome. The company also provides health care as part of the arrangement.

Ana Yang of the FSC says the project protects far more trees than are logged and has called for the government to make it easier for operations like this to get up and running. It’s much easier to get a logging licence than it is to get one to for forestry management, she told Reuters.

The government has announced a tender for the sale in March 2008 of more rainforest to be managed in a similar way. Its forestry agency says the idea is to expand private forest management as a means of protecting the Amazon. But the government will proceed cautiously because the concept remains controversial.

http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=996