The Mato Grosso State Timber Production and Exportation Industries Center (CIPEM), representing more than 600 companies, and IDH have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to sustainably promote and enhance the Mato Grosso forest-based industry in a sustainable way.
The partners will jointly develop activities to continuously improve the forest industry value chain in the state, based on four central pillars:
- Technical and financial support to create a Digital Forest Management Registration System;
- Exchange of knowledge, with technical visits and itinerant events;
- A feasibility study and operationalization of a sustainability seal that complies with Brazilian legislation and international protocols; and
- The development of communication strategies to improve the image of the forest-based industry and its access to new markets, both in Brazil and abroad.
The actions are in line with the state Produce, Conserve and Include (PCI) strategy, a long-term territorial alliance to mitigate issues related to deforestation and forest degradation. One of the PCI goals is to establish transparency and governance mechanisms to attract investments to Mato Grosso, to promote sustainable development. The PCI aims to create 6 million hectares of sustainably managed forest in Mato Grosso. Currently, the state has 3.7 million hectares of managed private forests.
According to President of CIPEM Rafael Mason, the purpose of joining the partnership is to promote the forest industry of Mato Grosso. He said:
“We see an opportunity to increase the impact and positive results already achieved in the production of native wood, building coalitions to improve and monitor sustainability criteria, while innovating the market approach.”
IDH is using the landscape approach to accelerate sustainability in the value chains of multiple sectors related to agricultural commodities by 2020. The approach bridges sustainable production, forest protection and social inclusion.
Daniela Mariuzzo, Executive Director of IDH in Brazil, said:
“We have developed sustainable actions in more than 40 countries around the world, and we have seen that the development of coalitions involving the public sector, the private sector, civil society, the financial sector and academia has a positive impact on society as a whole.”
Mauren Lazaretti, Environment Secretary of Mato Grosso, said the partnership goes hand-in-hand with understanding that sustainable forest management is a strategy to develop the economy and, at the same time, to conserve the Amazon forest:
“We are working together with CIPEM and IDH to implement modern and effective strategies that demystify the risk associated with native wood and ensure the legality of the forest sector value chain in the state.”
The signing of the partnership took place during an event at the headquarters of the Federation of Industries in the State of Mato Grosso (FIEMT) in Cuiabá on 25 April, with the participation of the presidents of the unions of the forestry sector and state authorities.
CIPEM is the union of eight forest-based employers’ unions in Mato Grosso, the purpose of which is to organize and strengthen the sector. In total, it represents around 600 companies. It encourages the productivity and conscious consumption of wood and its by-products in a sustainable way, in compliance with the current legislation and in harmony with the environment.
Background: The native forest sector in Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso has 3.7 million hectares of private native forests conserved through Sustainable Forest Management, with an expectation of reaching 6 million hectares by 2030. The activity is made up of more than 6 thousand forest enterprises, with about 1,800 industries and trades – which, together, employ about 90,000 people both directly and indirectly. Altogether, 44 municipalities in Mato Grosso are economically based on forestry, placing the sector fourth in its contribution to the state economy.