By Gabriel Araujo
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Biomas, a Brazilian reforestation venture backed by several corporate heavyweights, on Friday unveiled its first project, aiming to restore 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres) of Brazil’s coastal Atlantic rainforest with over 70 native tree species.
The project is a milestone for the company created in 2022 by miner Vale, meatpacker Marfrig, pulpmaker Suzano and lenders Santander Brasil, Itau and Rabobank.
It comes as Brazil’s nascent carbon removal industry gains scale, with major reforestation projects already underway from startups Mombak and re.green offering credits for companies to voluntarily offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
Those two developers bought land from farmers and ranchers or partnered with them to reforest parts of the Amazon, while Biomas is starting with a stretch of Atlantic rainforest in the state of Bahia and evaluating future projects in the Amazon.
The inaugural project, named Mucununga, will invest some 55 million reais ($9.7 million) to reforest land owned by eucalyptus pulp producer Veracel Celulose.
“The Atlantic rainforest is a biodiversity hotspot,” Biomas CEO Fabio Sakamoto said in an interview, noting local infrastructure and confidence in the land titles contributed to the decision to start with the coastal biome.
Over two thirds of Brazil’s population lives in the corridor once covered by the Atlantic rainforest, including the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Scientists estimate that only 12% of the original forest is still standing.
“Our focus is on both the Atlantic rainforest and the Amazon. We have been mapping opportunities in both biomes for the past couple of years,” Sakamoto added.
Biomas expects to plant 2 million trees in the Mucununga project to generate around 500,000 carbon credits over 40 years. Each credit is meant to compensate one ton of carbon dioxide emissions.
The company has a wide goal of restoring 2 million hectares of degraded or unproductive land over the next 20 years.
($1 = 5.68 reais)
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Brad Haynes and Chris Reese)
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