SÃO PAULO and MILAN, Aug. 10,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Suzano, the world's largest
producer of hardwood pulp, and Sofidel, a leading European
tissue paper producer, today announce "Together we plant the
future", a landmark three-year pilot project which will
advance ecological conservation and restoration, alongside
supporting socio-economic development in the Amazon region in
Brazil. This will be delivered
with support and on-the-ground implementation from IABS, the
Brazilian Institute for Development and Sustainability and
Amazônia Onlus, an Italian non-profit active to defend the
forest and the people of the Amazon. This region was selected
because some of Suzano operations are located in that area.
Through the partnership, Sofidel's investment will scale up
sustainable business models that can be adopted by communities
living alongside the rainforest, at the same time as improving
their food security and nutritional quality. In the first phase,
this will help lift 1,400 family farmers out of poverty
through income-generation projects, including increasing
agricultural productivity, beekeeping, and the cultivation and
commercialization of native species such as açaí berries and
babassu coconuts.
Alongside this, the project will fund the creation of an
important biodiversity corridor to promote connectivity within
a 2,210 square kms area of high ecological value
rainforest, straddling the border between the Brazilian states
of Maranhão and Pará. This will be achieved through a combination
of natural habitat restoration and sustainable agroforestry
systems, contributing to Suzano's long-term goal to create
biodiversity corridors that connect half a million hectares (5,000
square kilometers) of priority areas in Brazil's Amazon, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado
biomes by 2030 – an area equivalent to more than 700,000 football
pitches.
The biodiversity corridor will benefit a range of native species
in the region that are impacted by the fragmentation of habitats.
These include the jaguar (Panthera onca), red-necked aracari
(Pteroglossus bitorquatus), channel-billed toucan
(Ramphastos vitellinus), South American tapir (Tapirus
terrestrius), eastern black-handed tamarin monkey
(Saguinus ursulus), red-handed howler monkey (Alouatta
belzebul), and black bearded saki monkey (Chiropotes
satanas), many of which are currently considered to be
threatened or vulnerable to extinction.
Andrea Piazzolla, Chief
Purchasing Officer at Sofidel, said:
"Today a company committed to do business in
a sustainable way and create value for all its stakeholders has to
ensure that its suppliers share the same vision and way of
operating. According to SDG 17, we are pleased to partner with
Suzano, one of our biggest suppliers to make a difference. They
share our same values, so it came natural to join forces to tackle
both social and environmental issues in one of the poorest region
in Brasil where our pulp comes from".
"With decades of experience delivering
positive change, we believe Suzano is the right partner for us to
work alongside on this pilot program to bring concrete benefits and
a positive impact on the ground. We hope our efforts will create a
replicable and scalable model to help lifting communities out of
poverty in a way that enhances the ecosystem".
Paulo Jose de Souza Chaer
Borges, Managing Director EMEA, added:
"Businesses can change the word for the
better, but we can't do it alone. If we work together we can
magnify our impact. This is why we are excited to partner with one
of our biggest customers, Sofidel, to accelerate the promising
early impact that we have seen in our social and environmental
sustainability programs.
"By financially empowering communities living
in proximity to high ecological value areas, we can tackle poverty
as a root cause of deforestation, at the same time as incentivizing
them to protect and restore ecosystems. We hope that this
collaboration can prove the power of working together across the
supply chain, to create positive change."
About Suzano
Suzano is the world's largest producer of
hardwood pulp and the global leader in the innovation and
production of renewable, bio-based materials for consumer and
industrial use. Our responsibly grown materials provide over 2
billion people in more than 100 countries with plastic-free
products including writing paper, tissue, paper cups and straws,
paperboard packaging, toilet paper, textiles, diapers and more. We
are pioneers in sustainable mass-scale industrial production, and
our ethos of innovability – the pursuit of sustainable solutions
through innovation – is at the core of all our work, from the field
to our factories and labs, all the way to the end user. Suzano's
history spans 100 years and is listed on the B3 stock exchange in
Brazil (SUZB3) and the NYSE (SUZ)
in the United States. Learn more
at: www.suzano.com.br/en
About Sofidel
The Sofidel Group is one of the leading
manufacturers of paper for hygienic and domestic use worldwide.
Established in 1966, the Group has subsidiaries in 13 countries –
Italy, Spain, the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Romania, and the USA – with more than 6,000 employees, net
sales of 2,095 million Euros (2021)
and a production capacity of over one million tonnes per year
(1,440,000 tonnes in 2021). "Regina," its most well-known brand, is
present on almost all the reference markets. Other brands include:
Softis, Le Trèfle, Sopalin, KittenSoft, Nalys, Cosynel, Lycke,
Nicky, Papernet. A member of the UN Global Compact and the
international WWF Climate Savers programme, the Sofidel Group
considers sustainability a strategic factor with regards to growth
and is committed to reducing its impact on natural capital and
maximising social benefits, setting as objective the creation of
shared added value for all stakeholders. Sofidel's greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions reduction targets to 2030 have been approved by the
Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as consistent with
reductions required to keep warming to well-below 2°C, in line with
the goals of the Paris Agreement. www.sofidel.com
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SOURCE SOFIDEL