Where We Work

Brazil

Sustainable Forestry

With partner organization IMAFLORA, the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program has certified over 1,000,000 acres of sustainable forest in Brazil.

National Geographic Map Machine / plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/

Photo by Rainforest Alliance
Forests certified as well-managed produce wood that is marked and sold with the FSC
seal of approval. Photos by Rainforest Alliance

Chico Mendes, Brazil
The Amazon forest where noted community leader and environmental activist Chico Mendes lived and was assassinated became the first FSC-certified community forest in Brazil, and is the first area certified in the Brazilian State of Acre. The forest, comprised of small, family-managed parcels, totals 24,098 hectares (59,522 acres). Although the forest produces both timber and Brazil nuts, the current certification covers only the timber-Brazil nut certification will follow.

Klabin, Brazil
In December, Klabin Riocell became the first company in the world to produce 100% FSC-certified paper, and the first company in Brazil to produce FSC-certified paper. Riocell is a pulp and paper company that manages 66,000 hectares (163,000 acres) of forest in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. Riocell is part of the group Industrias Klabin, the largest pulp and paper producer in the Southern Hemisphere.

With the certification of more than 221,000 hectares of forest in Telemaco Borba, in Parana state in Brazil, Klabin Industries is the first company in the world to get FSC certification for cosmetic and medicinal ingredients. The rich biodiversity in these forests, with more than 80,000 hectares of native forest, allows the extraction of raw materials for producing medicines and cosmetics. The company maintains species under a management system that integrates a complex set of strategies. "Our clients tell us that what they buy is the FSC certification, not the eucalyptus from which our product is made," -- Jose Franzoni, Director of Klabin.

Brazilian School Finds Musical Uses for SmartWood
guitars A unique project has been helping impoverished children in Brazil develop a marketable skill, produce beautiful musical instruments, and develop a relationship with their natural environment -- all while safeguarding the rainforest. At a school in Manaus, a city located in the heart of the Amazon, street children and children from poor households are learning to make guitars and other stringed instruments out of sustainably produced wood.

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