Santa Catarina, November 26, 2020 – Klabin has expanded to Santa Catarina its program Social Forests – Planning Sustainable Properties, which strengthens family farming from production to marketing. To mark the program’s launch, on November 9, the company held a seminar in Otacílio Costa, Santa Catarina with the topic “Coalition to Support Family Farming in the Serra Catarinense Region.” The event, which was organized by Klabin and the Association for Preservation of the Environment and Life (Apremavi) and sponsored by the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC), the Agroveterinary Sciences Center of Santa Catarina State University (UDESC/CAV) and the Santa Catarina State Agricultural Research Agency (Epagri), attracted over 30 participants and was streamed online.

As in the state of Paraná, the Social Forests program will now support family farmers in the municipalities and communities located near Klabin’s operations in Santa Catarina in production phases from environmental compliance and support for marketing food products to actions involving professional training, diversification of properties and incentives for cooperatives. The program already has benefited over 500 rural properties in nine municipalities of Paraná state, with 72% of farmers increasing their income and yields and reducing their use of pesticides.

“The Social Forests program promotes economic, social and environmental opportunities through various training actions for family farmers. We are very optimistic about the results we will achieve in this new phase of the program now in Santa Catarina,” said Uilson Paiva, Social Responsibility and Community Relations manager at Klabin. To date, Klabin’s actions to support the production and sale of agricultural products are being implemented in the municipality of Otacílio Costa. In 2021, the program will be rolled out to the cities of Correia Pinto and Lages. 

Edinho Pedro Schaffer, president of Apremavi, underscored the importance of the seminar, which presented alternatives and enabled participants to share experiences. “Family farming has been one of the pillars of the partnership between Apremavi and Klabin over these 15 years of efforts in Santa Catarina to support the recovery and conservation of areas. In this new phase, the program will offer economic and social alternatives to farmers in regions near Klabin’s operations in the state.”

Other actions planned by the Social Forests program for farmers is courses, crowd efforts, visits to exchange knowledge, free seedlings of native tree species for recovering damaged areas and support for sustainable production. Focusing on strengthening family farming, Social Forests combines efforts with the Legal Forests program that has been active in the state for over 15 years. Besides encouraging silviculture using forests planted with pine or eucalyptus with a sustainable stewardship plan, the program also works to enrich secondary forests, support the conservation of headwaters and the soil, protect biodiversity and foster organic agriculture.

The launch seminar included the discussion panel “The experience of IFSC with family farming in the Serra Catarinense region,” with the participation of Luciane Costa, coordinator of Agribusiness Management Technology at the IFSC. Meanwhile Álvaro Mafra, professor of the Department of Soils and Natural Resources at UDESC, participated in the panel “The Agroecological Fair and Knowledge Exchange.”