Legal Woods

To encourage rural planning, compliance with environmental laws, the recuperation and conservation of areas of permanent preservation. With these goals in mind, Klabin and Apremavi (Association for Environmental Conservation in the Upper Itajai Valley) joined forces to implement the Legal Woods Program. This is the first time that a company from the Brazilian forestry sector has joined an environmental NGO for this purpose. Legal Woods is in force in the State of Santa Catarina and under analysis for implantation in Parana.

Target Public

Since most of the 17% of original Atlantic Rainforest is on private property in the State of Santa Catarina – in general small family-owned properties with less than 50 hectares – the Program counts on partnership with this group of people to begin the work of preservation and recovery of the environment. The Legal Woods Program is also directed at the participants of the Incentive Program, which has been run by Klabin since 1987.

These farmers take part in courses, community self-help projects and lectures, as well as the implantation of “model properties” with technical support, exchanged visits, distribution of educational materials and disclosure of the Program. The farmers receive orientation as well as free seedlings of native plants and get constant help in cultivating and maintaining their plantation, by way of inducement to conserve the Areas of Permanent Protection and Legal Reserves.

“The main pillars of a property’s economic and environmental sustainability are diversification in agricultural production and respect for the environment. Rural planning should contemplate the current environmental legislation and ecological characteristics of the area”, states Reinoldo Poernbacher, Klabin’s Forestry Director.

Actions

The recuperation and conservation of areas of permanent preservation by means of silviculture with exotic and native species, organic agriculture and agroforestry systems, the build-up of secondary forests and ecotourism – all of these are sustainable development actions which need to be implanted to justify more than just the meaning of the word “legal” as part of the Program: both compliance with the legislation and the essence of a place with an agreeable quality of life and living.

In 2006, Legal Woods also started to attend farmers in Upper Itajai Valley, Santa Catarina, who are participating in Klabin’s Forestry Incentive Program and use Propflora (Programa de Plantio Comercial e Recuperaçao de Florestas) and Pronaf (Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar) credit lines.

“Today it is vital that land and property be well planned, as that is the only way we will manage to preserve nature, quality of life and economic development,” states Miriam Prochnow, coordinator of Institutional Development at Apremavi.

In 2007 the Legal Woods Program won recognition with the Embuia Prize, presented by Apremavi.

About Apremavi

Apremavi (Association for Environmental Conservation in the Upper Itajai Valley) is a private non-profit institution, which has assumed a leading role in environmental matters in Santa Catarina State, identifying environmental failures, and has taken the initiative to solve them through education, the production of native forest seedlings, projects for reforestation and land recovery and the practice of organic agriculture.