Mato Grosso sees sustainable forest management as a way to reduce emissions
Sustainable forest management can help Mato Grosso reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16% in the coming years, contributing to the state’s goal of neutralizing carbon generation by 2035, according to a study commissioned by the Secretariat of the Environment (Sema-MT). If it grows as planned, with an increase of 3.6 million hectares by 2050, the activity will be able to accumulate a reduction of 1,195 teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalent (TgCO2) — a measure corresponding to one million tonnes ¬— by 2050, when the state intends to be carbon negative.In Mato Grosso, loggers privately manage 4.7 million hectares, with about 300,000 new hectares being added per year. Production has already exceeded 4 million cubic meters of native wood per year, with revenues of more than R$300 million in 2021. It is the main economic activity of 44 municipalities in the north of the state.The activity legally extracts native wood from private legal reserves of farms in the Amazon biome, and now can have a more complete traceability. Once harvested, the area is left untouched for 25 years and is periodically assessed to verify the growth of the forest where the wood was harvested. Today, there are approximately 8.5 million hectares in Brazil — in other states, exploitation also takes place in state-run forests.The "harvesting" of mature individuals that have stopped sequestering carbon makes room for the birth of new trees that will be able to retain polluting gases from the atmosphere through photosynthesis."Management is about combining science and technology and putting it all into practice to renew the Amazon rainforest. Forest management makes the most of the natural life cycle of the forest — which is born, grows, ages, and dies. In this process, before it dies, we harvest it to make the best use of it," said Frank Rogieri de Almeida, president of the National Forum of Forest-Based Activities (FNBF), an organization that brings together producers and companies that participate in the sustainable management chain.The activity can contribute to the reduction of 16% of carbon emissions by 2030, calculates Sema-MT, behind the maintenance of forest assets (26.7%) and the protection of secondary vegetation (21%) in a list of actions that the state government has prioritized to be zero carbon in the next decade.By 2030, Mato Grosso is expected to reach 6 million hectares of forest management, with an annual reduction of 38 TgCO2e. With new expansions of the...
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