Through the initiative, carried out by Klabin in partnership with Apremavi, Lucas Caliari and Laís Ferrari joined the cultivation system involving the conservation of permanent forest species

Santa Catarina, December 20, 2022 — Evidencing the success of working together for sustainability, the Legal Forests Program has helped in the restoration of Villadagio, a property owned by rural producers Lucas Caliari and Laís Ferrari in São Joaquim, a town in the Serra Catarinense region of Santa Catarina. The area, initially use to raise cattle, is becoming an example of agroforestry – a production system that conserves permanent forest species, which are planted along with agricultural crops. 
 
Implemented by Klabin, Brazil’s largest producer and exporter of paper for packaging and sustainable solutions in paper packaging, in partnership with the Association for Preservation of the Environment and Life (Apremavi), the Legal Forests program arrived in Santa Catarina in 2005 to foster conservation, environmental education and forest development initiatives dedicated to protecting and recovering native forests, improving the quality of life of communities and enhancing local forest growth through careful planning of properties and the landscape.
 
Leandro Casanova, an employee of Apremavi and coordinator of the Legal Forests Program, explained that “the project to transform the property started when Lucas and Laís visited the Environmental Center and the Jardim das Florestas Nursery in February this year to learn about the Legal Forests program, its purpose and the possibilities it offers.” 
 
Hailing from Maringá, Paraná, Lucas Caliari and Laís Ferrari acquired Villadagio around a year ago. “We left the interior region of Paraná, where monoculture farming is widely prevalent, to come to Pericó in Santa Catarina to experience the type of agriculture that we believe in: agroforestry. We were glad to discover Apremavi, which presented us with native seedlings from the Atlantic Forest to regenerate our area by cultivating fruit and bracatinga trees, flowers and yerba mate,” said Laís. 
 
Lucas explained that they now plan to restore 15 hectares of the property. “The transformation of Villadagio into an agroforest is a long-time dream and this was the first step of a highly desired journey. It is the symbiosis of our biome with our future home, accommodation, canteen and agroindustry. Also, recovering the landscape and helping to improve the quality of life in the property and the community has been motivating,” he said. 
 
According to Mireli Moura Pitz Floriani, Sustainability Consultant at Klabin, sustainability gets a boost when solid partnerships are built to preserve the environment, strengthening the results of nature conservation actions. “The Legal Forests Program plays a crucial role among the partner rural producers of Klabin and Apremavi by disseminating the best forestry and environmental recovery practices. Future generations will see the first steps taken to recover Villadagio as sustainable models that produced positive results through the Legal Forests Program,” she concluded. 

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