Paraná, May 13, 2016 – Klabin, Brazil’s largest paper producer and exporterand the leading manufacturer of paper and board for packaging, corrugated board packaging and industrial bags, commemorated on Wednesday (11), in partnership with the Association for Preservation of the Environment and Life (Apremavi), the tenth anniversary of Matas Legais, a program that offers orientation, raises awareness and supports owners of small and midsized rural properties in the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina on the sustainable use of their land and environmental conservation.

The event was commemorated at the Harmonia Club in Telêmaco Borba, Paraná and was attended by the rural producers participating in the Matas Legais program, representatives from Apremavi, the Klabin team and partners from the program’s various regions. At the encounter, ten producers and the founders of Matas Legais were honored for the good results obtained to date and for believing in the initiative from the very start. The participants watched a presentation by Klabin’s forest development and wood sales manager, Carlos Alberto Bernardi, on the company’s Forest Development Project and its achievements, such as the FSC® certification of small and midsized producers and the adaptations of rural properties located in Klabin’s operating region. The company’s community relations manager, Uilson Paiva, presented the program Planning Sustainable Properties, and Apremavi, represented by Miriam Prochnow, its board member and public policies coordinator, highlighted the advances achieved by the Matas Legais program during its first decade.

Over these ten years, the project has delivered more than one million seedlings to producers in Paraná and Santa Catarina who participate in the company’s development program and sponsored social and educational projects in the cities where Klabin has forestry operations. The Matas Legais program restored approximately 350 hectares of riparian forests and helped to recover and conserve Permanent Preservation Areas (APP) by demarcating 6,000 hectares of legal reserves and 1,200 hectares of legal reserves in regeneration in Paraná. It also supported the practice of organic farming and fostered environmental conservation and awareness, which helped the farmers diversify their rural activities, bolster their household income and preserve natural resources.

According to Apremavi, in Paraná, environmental adaptations will continue to enable rural producers to obtain certifications and in turn add value to the wood they produce. In the Serrana and Alto Vale do Itajaí regions of the state, the initiative will be essential for helping municipalities plan their landscape, with the drafting of Municipal Plans for Restoring and Conserving the Atlantic Forest.

Matas Legais collaborates with Klabin’s Forest Development Program, which since 2014 has supported forestry producers in the Médio Rio Tibagi region to obtain the international FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) seal, which attests that the property’s forest management conserves natural resources and offers fair labor conditions. The program currently has 193 property owners and more than 300 rural properties engaged in the certification process.