During the month of October, the Rainforest Alliance certified the Pratigi Environmental Protection Area (EPA), located in the Bahia Southern Lowlands, for forest restoration carbon projects. The action lent more credibility to the Pratigi Neutral Carbon Program, coordinated by the Land Conservation Organization (OCT) – an institution that is part of the Bahia Southern Lowlands Environmental Protection Area Mosaic Program for Development and Growth Integrated with Sustainability (PDCIS), supported by the Odebrecht Foundation and public and private partners.

Internationally recognized, the Rainforest Alliance evaluates and certifies sustainable initiatives that generate ecological, social and economic benefits. The seal gives the Pratigi EPA the title of certified territory that is qualified for carbon sequestering projects through forest restoration actions. The OCT website has a carbon consumption calculator that allows people or companies to compensate their emissions. The result is displayed in numbers of trees and the values in Brazilian reais of how much it would cost to plant these. The resources acquired allow for the reforestation of the water sources located in the area. The seedlings are planted on the properties of the family farmers from the region and each producer earns R$ 1 per unit planted.

“The certification confirms that we are working coherently with technical guarantees that the inventoried carbon will really be neutralized in reforestation actions,” explained Roque Fraga, Environmental Planning Coordinator at OCT. “Those who join initiatives like this one will be following all of the premises that the green economy establishes,” said Bruno Matta, Environmental Conservation leader at OCT.

Volney Fernandes, Environmental Services Leader at OCT, emphasizes that the recognition is crucial for demonstrating that the program has generated benefits for the environment and for farmers from the region. “We are working increasingly more to meet the sustainability objectives by adopting an economic matrix that can also re-establish the services geared toward the environment at the Pratigi EPA,” said Fernandes.

Among the results achieved through the Pratigi Neutral Carbon project is the restoration of more than 155 hectares of native species of Atlantic Forest; the installation of the Agroforestry Systems (SAFs) – the planting method that integrates agriculture with the forest –; and the recovery of 97 water sources, which already allows for the neutralization of more than 32,000 tons of carbon.

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