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Suzano's Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity

Suzano's Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity

Pledge by

Susano S.A

Connect five hundred thousand hectares of priority areas for biodiversity conservation in the Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and the Amazon, by 2030.

Type
Conserving, Restoring & Growing, Enabling
This pledge will take place from
2021 to 2030
Location
Brazil

Company website

Pledge overview

One of the main threats to biodiversity loss in Brazil and worldwide is habitat fragmentation. This phenomenon occurs when a continuous natural area of environmental relevance is subdivided into smaller areas with no connection to each other. This happens for various reasons, such as disorderly growth and economic activities. Fragmentation alters ecological interactions in the landscape, isolating species, resulting in reduced genetic variability and reproductive success – which can contribute to their extinction - interferes with the loss of resilience of territories to climate change, and the provision of ecosystem services, among other adverse effects.

To contribute with the 1 trillion trees by 2030 goal, Suzano will connect 500 thousand hectares of relevant fragmented natural areas through the implementation of biodiversity corridors, inside and outside the areas where the company operates.

The goal was developed throughout 2020, based on the principle of collaborative construction. For this, a broad network of stakeholders¹ was consulted, totaling more than 60 interviewees done with 40 national and international institutions, with the objective of making its rationale viable, scientifically based and guarantee of additionality of significant social and environmental benefits.

To reach the goal, Suzano will focus its actions in three pillars: connecting, engaging and protecting, which will be broken down into action’s line of implementing biodiversity corridors, creating a network of Protected Areas, conserving populations of primates and palm trees, establishing a business model that generates shared value from Suzano's natural areas, implementing biodiverse production models in Suzano’s production area, in addition to actions of reducing the impact drivers on biodiversity as a result of human action in the Suzano’s protected areas.

The pledge considers the entire extension and influence of Suzano’s territory. And because nature does not recognize boundaries between properties, the scope of challenge focused on the priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Brazil, in the Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna), Atlantic Forest and Amazon biomes, going beyond the fences of Suzano’s properties.

In 2021, we are focused on developing the governance and the management of the commitment, in order to establish the planning and its baseline, which will establish the measurement of existing and future connections, kpis and related benefits. At the end of the year, we will have the 2022 operational implementation plan and the roadmap until 2030, with the annual milestones for reaching the commitment.

¹ Stakeholders consulted: non-governmental organizations, academia, public and private sector. The 63 interviewees were evenly distributed as to sociological perspective between non-governmental institutions (38% – 24 people), public sector (32% – 20 people), and private sector (30% – 19 people).

Actions in this pledge

  • Conserving trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Permanent conservation
    Secure a forest through acquisition or legal agreement to avoid planned or unplanned deforestation or degradation, and/or ensure permanent conservation of land
    Conservation support activities
    Support the operating costs and activities of existing conservation areas, including advocacy for conservation policy
    Other conservation activities
    • Create a network of Protected Areas.• Conserve populations of threatened primates and palm trees, promoting the improvement of the quality of environmental conservation.
    Additional details

    These parameters are still being developed in detail.

    Conserving

    Land area
    500,000 ha

  • Restoring and growing trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Assisted natural regeneration
    Actions that support natural regeneration without tree planting, such as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, forest soil remediation, exotic species control, disease prevention, and wildfire protection
    Reforestation
    Re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest, that has been degraded or where trees are unlikely to regenerate naturally
    Agroforestry
    Activities that establish and manage the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes, silvopastoral systems, farming in forests and along forest margins and tree-crop production
    Watershed protection and erosion control
    Establishment and enhancement of forests on very steep sloping land, along water courses, in areas that naturally flood and around critical water bodies
    Other restoration and tree growing activities
    • Implement biodiversity corridors at the landscape scale by biome (Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and Amazon).
    Additional details

    These parameters are still being developed in detail.

    Restoring & Growing

    Land area
    5,000 ha

  • Enabling activities for trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Sustainable forest management
    Activities that support the stewardship and use of forests (including by local communities and indigenous peoples), to maintain their biological diversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity, as well as their potential to fulfil relevant ecological economic and social functions
    Market development for sustainable forest products
    Activities that create markets and demand for ecologically and socially responsible timber and non-timber forest and agroforestry products, e.g. capacity-building for the harvesting and processing of agroforestry products, forest certification standards, etc.
    Education and capacity building
    Forest / tree species conservation and restoration education programmes, targeted educational and behaviour change campaigns, training and capacity building, including promotion of local and traditional knowledge and practices
    Community mobilisation
    Community mobilisation and engagement activities for conservation, restoration and reforestation, including enabling systems of community governance, etc.
    Data collection, management and technological tools
    Activities that provide data and/or technological tools to support conservation and restoration (e.g. monitoring etc.)
    Financial innovation
    Activities that create additional financial opportunities and incentives for conservation, restoration and reforestation (e.g. blended financing vehicles, etc.)
    Other enabling activities
    • Establish a business model that generates shared value from Suzano's natural areas.• Implement biodiverse production models in Suzano's production.• Alleviate the negative impact drivers on biodiversity as a result of human action in the Suzano's protected areas.
    Additional details

    These parameters are still being developed in detail.

    Enabling

Our ecologically and socially responsible approach

Suzano’s Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity was based on science and public data to benefit and bring additionality to the socio-environmental aspects of influence regions of the biodiversity corridor to be implemented.

The guiding principles of Forest Landscape Restoration.

Our system of accreditation

In 2020, Bureau Veritas Certification Brazil (‘Bureau Veritas’) was engaged by Suzano S.A. (‘Suzano’) to conduct an independent assurance of its Long Term Goal in 2020 (page 106). In 2020, Suzano linked the variable remuneration of directors and management (both at the executive and functional levels) to the development and results of the Long-Term Goals associated with their respective areas of expertise. This is one of the decisions that demonstrate the company's degree of commitment to achieving the goals assumed by 2030. As a result, 100% of Executive Directors now have their variable compensation associated with at least one Long-Term Goal.

NOTE: Because Suzano’s Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity was only released in 2021, it will be submitted to a third party verification in 2022 for the 2021 exercise.

Our partners

The engagement of strategic actors, internally and externally, is a fundamental premise for the development of an influential, diversified and continuous movement to reach Suzano’s Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity and, subsequently, for the maintenance of its socio-environmental benefits achieved.

Suzano’s Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity was built in 2020 and launched at the end of June 2021 in partnership with Instituto Ecofuturo, a non-governmental organization that has been working for twenty years with environmental conservation. It will also work along the implementation until 2030.

Suzano’s Commitment to Conserve Biodiversity implementation planning is supported by IPE, currently one of the largest environmental NGOs in Brazil, which works combining research, environmental education, habitat restoration, community involvement with sustainable development, landscape conservation and policy-making.

Other partnerships are being built with academia, NGOs, the public and private sectors.

Our locations

We are working at locations across Brazil.

The biodiversity corridors will be implemented in the biomes of Cerrado (Mato Grosso do Sul State) Mata Atlantica (Bahia and Espírito Santo States) and Amazonia (Maranhão State).

Our implementation progress

Pledge implementation progress reporting is managed in collaboration with IUCN’s Restoration Barometer, and is required annually from the year following pledge publication.