May 3, 2018 – The maintenance of forest mosaics in Santa Catarina and a family farming project in Paraná earned Klabin awards in two categories at the 25th Expressão Ecologia Awards. Given annually by the publishing house Editora Expressão, these are the biggest and oldest awards for sustainable development in Southern Brazil.

Winner in the “Sustainable Forest Management” category, the Forest Mosaics and Natural Resources Conservation program consists of planting of pine and eucalyptus trees in mosaic format, i.e., interspersed with preserved native forests. With this, ecological corridors are formed through which fauna circulates, thereby expanding the conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. Klabin is a pioneer in adopting this system. The company’s areas in Santa Catarina, spanning 136,000 hectares within the Atlantic Forest biome, are home to over species of 1,250 flora and fauna, 450 of them on the list of endangered species.

“It’s in our nature to prioritize initiatives that enable the sustainable development of our entire production chain, and the forest mosaic is one of the hallmarks in Klabin’s history. This recognition legitimates our efforts to improve company’s sustainability strategy and management,” says Mireli Moura Pitz, biologist at Klabin.

The other Klabin initiative that won an award was the Social Forests – Planning Sustainable Properties program, implemented in partnership with the Association for Environmental and Life Preservation (Apremavi), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Micro and Small Company Support Service (Sebrae). Winner in the “Recovery of Degraded Areas” category, the program supports small rural producers in the environmental, legal and landscaping adaptation of their properties after mapping and planning them for diversifying production. Since its implementation in 2015, the project has already helped over 1,800 property owners in the city of Ortigueira and 690 in Imbaú to obtain the Rural Environmental Registration (CAR), and has donated to them 136,000 seedlings of diverse native species of the Atlantic Forest. On the social front, 337 rural properties receive technical assistance for planting and receive training for selling their farm produce through consumption chains previously identified in the region.

“The award winning programs are the materialization of our Sustainability Policy: to care for the environment and the natural resources, and support the development of communities where we operate,” says Uilson Paiva, Community Relations, Environment and Certification Manager at Klabin in Paraná.

The Expressão Ecologia award winning projects will be published in the book Trajetória Ambiental do Sul (Environmental Trajectory of the South, in free translation) to be published by Editora Expressão, to be launched during the Sustainable Management Forum to be held in July.

About the Expressão Ecologia Awards

The Expressão Ecologia awards are Brazil’s biggest environmental awards in the corporate segment. Established in 1993 by Editora Expressão, the awards have received more than 2,000 nominations, which include cases submitted by leading companies, NGOs, municipal governments and entities in Southern Brazil.