The Brazilian Tree Industry (Ibá) is the association responsible for the institutional representation of the productive chain of planted trees, from the field to the industry, together with its main stakeholders. Launched in April 2014, it represents 49 companies and nine state entities of products originating from the cultivation of planted trees – wood panels, laminated floors, cellulose, paper, energy forests and biomass -, in addition to independent planted tree producers and institutional investors. Learn more at www.iba.org.
Brazilian Tree Industry
Environmental awareness and work in synergy with nature make the Brazilian Tree Industry a reference to the world as an industry that operates within the concept of bioeconomics.
This is an agribusiness that looks carefully at each step in its chain, with the objective of making the environment an ally, conserving biodiversity while producing more than 5,000 bioproducts and byproducts.
Throughout its chain, environmental and social views are central pillars. It is not by chance that the companies in the sector are voluntarily certified by the main international labels, some of them for more than 20 years.
7.4 million hectares are certified by internationally recognized certification systems such as the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Program of Endorsement for Forest Certification Schemes) / Cerflor. This is perhaps the main ESG tool.
Companies are audited to ensure that the practices are socially fair, environmentally responsible and economically viable, and may lose the certificate if they do not follow its principles, criteria and sustainability indicators.
Some details that make this sector a light for the bioeconomy.
Environmental
- It conserves at the same time that it produces: The Brazilian Tree Industry is the one that most conserves in Brazil. There are 9 million hectares of planted trees for 5.9 million hectares destined for conservation.
- Commercial plantations are usually carried out in areas previously degraded by human action. 32,700 hectares contemplated with programs to restore degraded areas in 2019.
- Altogether there are 5.9 million hectares of areas destined for conservation, an area larger than the state of Rio de Janeiro;
- Removes and stores CO2, contributing to the mitigation of climate changes;
- It has one of the highest paper recycling rates in the world.
- All field activities are designed to mitigate potential impacts on biodiversity. As a result of the good practices adopted, an analysis of studies conducted in the areas of companies located in the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes showed that among the endangered species in Brazil, 38% of mammals and 41% of birds were found in these areas.
- In crops, the sector adopts forest management practices that allow regulating water flow. Going further, it monitors 50 micro-basins, some of them for more than 20 years. This makes it possible to understand the water conditions in the regions and how forest management and human actions in the landscape affect the quantity and quality of this resource.
- The 9 million hectares of planted trees and the almost 6 million hectares destined for conservation stock 4.88 billion CO2 eq. This is a volume higher than that issued by Brazil (the country) in 2016, which totaled 1.467 billion tCO2 eq, according to the Fourth National Communication that officially reports data to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. on Climate Change).
Social
- There are 1.4 million jobs created throughout Brazil. Altogether, adding the income effect, it reaches 3.75 million opportunities.
- This is a sector that leads to development in the regions where it operates. There are currently more than 1,000 municipalities in its area of influence, mostly in the interior of Brazil and. many of them, socially depressed before the sector arrived.
- The municipalities with cultivated plantations grew 56% while the evolution of this average indicator in Brazil was 47% in 2018.
- The sector invests approximately R $ 828 million in socio-environmental programs per year, benefiting 6.9 million people.
- For more than a decade, the sector has been talking to residents’ associations, NGOs and other entities to find a suitable path in the relationship between people and the environment.