S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Mining company Vale, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Funcef and Petros (pension funds for employees of the Federal Savings and Loans Bank and of the oil company Petrobras, respectively), announced today (5th) that they are going to establish Vale Florestar S.A, one of Brazil\u2019s largest reforestation funds.<\/p>\n
With a capital of 605 million Brazilian real equivalent to US$ 344 million (40% for Vale and 20% for each stakeholder), the fund will aim to reforest a total area of 450,000 hectares in the Amazon by 2022, of which 150,000 will be allocated to industrial forests, and 300,000 to protection and recovery of native forests.<\/p>\n
the Vale Florestar project was created in 2007, by Vale, to promote reforestation of degraded areas with native and exotic species, and has already invested 230 million real in recovery actions. \u201cWe want to speed up this project, and that is why we need partners,\u201d said Roger Agnelli, president of Vale, in a press conference.<\/p>\n
Presently, Brazil has 4.6 million hectares of eucalyptus forests, whereas the demand for this type of wood in the country is 114 million cubic metres per year, resulting in an annual deficit of 2 million cubic metres of eucalyptus logs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to our calculations, the return will be higher than 10% per year,\u201d stated Wagner Pinheiro, president da Petros, regarding the fund\u2019s return forecasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are certain that this is a profitable deal,\u201d said Guilherme Lacerda, president of Funcef. \u201cWe cannot fool around by making a deal of this kind that does not offer an attractive rate of return,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Roger Agnelli linked the fund\u2019s profitability to the growing deficit in the country\u2019s wood production. \u201cProfitability is increasing on a daily basis. We believe that in the next few years, the price of wood should go up. Profitability translates into one cubic metre of growth per day,\u201d claimed the president of Vale.<\/p>\n
According to the executive, more than just an environmental project, Vale Florestar is a social project. \u201cThis means employment, an alternative, and opportunities for the local communities,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere already are people in Bahrain (an Arab country located in the Gulf) who are willing to invest. The same applies to China and Japan,\u201d said Agnelli while mentioning foreign investors who have expressed intentions of taking part in the fund.<\/p>\n
To the BNDES\u2019 Environment director, Eduardo Fingerl, the institution\u2019s participation in the project is proof of its concern with social and environmental activities.<\/p>\n
The project comprises the municipalities of Dom Eliseu, Ulian\u00f3polis, Paragominas, Rondon do Par\u00e1, Abel Figueiredo, and Bom Jesus do Tocantins. According to the Ecological Economic Zoning of the state of Par\u00e1, these cities are located in a zone of consolidation and expansion of productive activities, in an already deforested territory.<\/p>\n
Presently, the project is already in effect at 41 local farms by means of lease agreements with Vale. All participating properties are environmentally legal, and the company is waiting for other ones to be regularized so that it may sign similar agreements, or even purchase the areas. Currently, the Vale Florestar operations counts on 1,500 employees, and is expected to generate up to 4,000 direct jobs when production reaches its peak.<\/p>\n
The fund\u2019s financial structuring will be carried out by company Global Equity Administradora de Recursos, which will also be in charge of locating and assessing new investment opportunities. The fund\u2019s establishment awaits approval from the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM).<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vale, BNDES, Funcef and Petros will establish a US$ 344 million fund. The aim is to recover 450,000 hectares in the Amazon. Companies seek partners to speed up the project and Arabs are interested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2313,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sustainability"},"wps_subtitle":"Vale, BNDES, Funcef and Petros will establish a US$ 344 million fund. The aim is to recover 450,000 hectares in the Amazon. Companies seek partners to speed up the project and Arabs are interested.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2313"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}