Brazil has more than 490 million hectares of forest, covering 59% of its entire territory, putting it in second place for nations with most forest area worldwide (1). Brazil has at times also been the
country with the highest levels of forest loss in the world, for example 53,167,000 ha were deforested from 1990 to 2015 at an average rate of 0.4%/year (2). The expansion of the agricultural frontier due to cattle ranching, soy farming, timber collection, infrastructure and colonization have contributed to this historically high deforestation rate, which is concentrated in the northern portion of the country, where the Amazon Rainforest lies.

The primary objective of the Agrocortex REDD Project is to avoid the unplanned deforestation (AUD) of the 186,369.66 ha project area, consisting of 100% Amazon rainforest. The project area is located within a private property named “Fazenda Seringal Novo Macapá”, which is situated in the municipalities of Manoel Urbano, Pauini and Boca do Acre, in the States of Acre and Amazonas, South-western Amazon.

The project proponent is Agrocortex Madeiras do Acre Agroflorestal Ltda., a Brazilian private company responsible for the operations of Agrocortex Florestas do Brasil S.A – the holding. The latter also holds Agrocortex Florestas Tropicais Ltda., which owns another private company named Batisflor Florestal Ltda. – the landowner of Fazenda Seringal Novo Macapá.

In March/2014, the Agrocortex holding company and Batisflor Florestal Ltda. established an agreement to harvest forest products/by-products and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in a manner consistent with the conservation of the local ecosystem, granting rights of timber harvesting, NTFPs extraction and carbon credits to Agrocortex Madeiras do Acre Agroflorestal Ltda. (hereafter, “Agrocortex” or “the company”). The latter is a sustainable development company engaged in conserving the environment through sustainable forest management, generation of greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reductions, and NTFPs. Agrocortex started the sustainable forest management operation in June/2014, which was the main action of the company in terms of reducing GHG emissions and initiating the present REDD project, and is thus the designated project start date.

Beyond the project’s ecological and carbon benefits, a proportion of the carbon credits generated will be dedicated to improving the social and environmental conditions in the project region, specifically contributing to improving deforestation control, and developing environmental education and other social activities. The contribution to sustainability is being monitored through the application of the SOCIALCARBON® Standard, which is based on six main indicators: Biodiversity; Natural; Financial; Human; Social and Carbon Resources.

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The present REDD project is expected to avoid a predicted 19,112 ha of deforestation, equating
to 6,080,773 tCO2e in emissions reductions over the 30 year project lifetime (01-July-2014 to 30-
June-2044).

The project is located in the border between the States of Acre and Amazonas, within the agricultural expansion frontier region, around 25km south of the BR-364, the main highway that crosses the State of Acre. The main deforestation agents acting within the reference region during the historical period were: cattle ranching, mainly producing beef cattle; and timber harvesters, acting both legally and illegally.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified sustainable forest management plan (SFMP) implemented by Agrocortex can be considered a tool for forest conservation, maintenance of forest carbon stocks, and decrease of deforestation rates in the project region. This mainly occurs due to the use of reduced impact logging techniques, reduced social and environmental operational impacts, greater surveillance in the area, and generation of economic value from forest resources. However, the complexity and costs of this sustainable operation, added to factors such as bureaucratic constraints and fluctuation of certified timber prices, make SFMP less competitive than illegal logging. Thus, revenue from the sale of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) is essential for the project activity to compete with profitable alternative land-use scenarios.

In addition to contributing to the long-term conservation of the region, the Agrocortex REDD Project also has the function of establishing a barrier against the advancement of deforestation, making an important contribution to the conservation of South-western Amazon biodiversity and also to climate regulation in Brazil and South America.

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Complete Project Description

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1 FAO. Global Forest Resource Assessment 2015: Desk reference. Rome, 2015. 253 p.

Available at: <http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4808e.pdf>. Last visited on: 21-March-2017.

2 FAO. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 Country Reports: Brazil. Rome, 2014. 148 p. Available at: <http://www.fao.org/3/a-az172e.pdf>. Last visited on: 21-March-2017.