Export of timber from the Amazon halves in ten years

One of the main export items in the Amazon, wood, had a reduction in the volume exported over the last ten years (46%). The data, if observed superficially, can be read in two ways: negative, because it represents a reduction in an economic sector or positive, because it indicates that, and still, the pressure on the forest has been reduced.

However, the data reflects a change in the profile and market of the sector, which has more and more rules and requirements, demands professionalization from investors, removes companies without strength and reveals a profound change in full swing: the export base is being changed, extraction and sale of fresh wood logs for products with higher added value - and greater job creation for the region.

(Tarso Sarraf / O Liberal)

The Association of Wood Exporting Industries of the State of Pará (Aimex) saw its number of associated companies also halves in the same period: there were 45 in 2010 and today there are 22. Today, in addition to documents related to the area where wood is obtained, an exporting company needs to complete nine other stages, involving four bodies from different spheres of activity, such as the IRS and the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources (Ibama), from the Federal Government and the state and environment departments of the farm and the state government. The whole process can take up to months.

Historically, the State of Pará, located in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, is one of the main outlets for exporting wood to the world. Today, however, about 65% of Pará's wood exports are value-added products, especially floors, plywood, doors and kitchen objects. All of this production complies with a strict process of legal requirements. The change in focus of the activity, now with added value, is noticed when looking at the past. In the 1970s, the situation was the opposite: exports of roundwood, without any processing, represented 60% of the total wood products that left the ports of Pará to go abroad.

"Management, when done correctly, helps to maintain the forest, in capturing carbon and even speeding up the regeneration process" - Jessica Dalmaso, from Celma Comércio Ecológico.

The change to the current scenario was intensified as of the 1990s, with the import of machinery and equipment that redefined the panorama of the quality of the wood products benefited in Pará. The adaptation of the sector is also due to an economic and crucial issue: the collection of international market in relation to the environment and pressure for vertical production in the State, which in addition to adding value, increases the level of jobs. In 2021, the sector is responsible for 80 thousand jobs in Pará.

According to data provided by the International Business Center (CIN), of the Federation of Industries of the State of Pará (Fiepa), in the last 10 years, Pará exported approximately 2.4 billion dollars. The decade, however, was marked by ups and downs for the sector, generating an accumulated negative variation of 46% between 2011 and 2020.

(Tarso Sarraf / O Liberal)

In the early 2010s Pará exported more than US $ 397 million in wood, the number reached just over US$ 170 million in 2016. Since then, the sector has been growing again and, in 2020, it even exported US$ 211 million. The decline was due to competition with other products, but mainly due to greater legal requirements for entrepreneurs in the sector.

"This decrease occurred due to several factors, such as the replacement of wood by porcelain tiles, plastics, irons and other materials. Another reason is the professionalization of the sector itself, with increased quality control and compliance with the law, many companies left the sector. Today, we see this resumption guided by legal and sustainable practices, which has been made possible by the expansion of the forest concession areas by the Union, aimed at serious companies and committed to the forest ", evaluates Deryck Martins, technical director of the Association of Wood Exporting Industries of the State of Pará.

Management is a necessary practice for the viability of the sector

The international demand for sustainable practices that align companies with the principles of forest preservation also entered the equation, which created a culture of concern for the future of the Amazon and how this future would encompass the generation of jobs and income in one of the most vulnerable regions. poor in the country. Guaranteeing the environmental services provided globally by the region, but allowing the local population to have access to work and basic services has been one of the most outstanding points today in the so-called “Amazon paradox”.

"The consumer can, when buying the wood, ask about the origin of the wood and the company that is selling it needs to present sustainable documentation or stamps" - Deryck Martins, from Aimex.

Today, forest management is a mandatory practice among companies committed to the environment. It is the administration of the forest to obtain economic, social and environmental benefits, respecting ecosystems and ensuring that the forest is standing, producing and regenerating.

(Tarso Sarraf / O Liberal)

"The images of rafts full of wood shock people, but when you study in depth and see that the wood comes from forest management, you see that the impact is very small. Management, when done correctly, helps to maintain the forest, in capturing carbon and even speeding up the regeneration process. From in-depth studies, you make a selective cut of some trees, instead of going out cutting indiscriminately as many imagine. When you cut the tree with the canopy closed, for example, you open a sun glade and other trees start to grow, in a natural way", says Jessica Dalmaso, from Celma Comércio Ecológico.

The applicability of a management plan is related to studies of floristic composition, phytosociological structure and species distribution. The more the natural processes and biodiversity of a forest region are investigated, the more precisely the management plans are carried out.

"In addition, the concessions determine that part of the production value is passed on to the state, municipalities and entities in the area, as well as providing for the allocation of values for projects in riverside communities, which makes a lot of difference for municipalities with a low Human Development Index. We have initiatives that seek to generate more than employment and income, but a socioeconomic integration", recalls Dalmaso, who is a master's student in forest sciences at the University of Brasília (UnB).

For José Maria Mendonça, vice president of the Federation of Industries of Pará (Fiepa), forest management for the productive sector is one of the mechanisms for controlling standing forests. “The best way to keep our native forest standing is to work with forest management, which in addition to the economic gain also provides an environmental gain, since the adult trees removed will be replaced by new trees, which sequester much more carbon from the atmosphere, and with that, we anticipate the natural carbon cycle ”, he highlights.

According to Thiago Valente, member of the deliberative council of the Paraense Association of Forest Engineers, through Forest Management researches are already carried out within the forests of the Amazon that “consider not only the use of resources in a sustainable way to supply the market , but it considers, primarily, the relationship of the activity with communities that inhabit and survive in the forest”, 
he points out.

For him, “the intervention in a forest under management regime guarantees not only the maintenance of the forest landscape, but, in a substantial way, allows the conservation of the contents of the forests, their ecological relations and, as a consequence, in addition to the commercial logic of supply of the market, there is the maintenance of the climate and the balance of social relations ”, he says.

In addition, there is currently a growing practice of reusing wood, avoiding disposal. "Today the wood that is reused is in a very large amount, 50%. In addition to becoming everyday objects, the smaller and irregular parts and the sawdust are used to generate energy, with filters, and which pollute much less than other components like oil and gasoline. In addition, there are other markets that also use, such as the rustic furniture market ", says Deryck Martins, from Aimex.

Deryck believes that the distancing of part of society from the productive processes of wood generates negative images about the sector, especially due to the illegal activities that end up contaminating the public perception about who, in fact, acts correctly when it comes to reducing environmental impacts. of the activity.

(Sidney Oliveira / O Liberal)

He points out that it is also the role of consumers to assume the role of supervisors of the purchases they make, a practice that he understands as simple, but that would contribute a lot to the fight against deforestation and illegal logging in the Amazon.

"When we buy an electronic device, for example, you know that if it is on the street vendor, it is not the same quality. You buy cheaper, make a choice. With wood, this relationship does not exist, as they can, the illegal and the legal, be worked and sold in a similar way. The consumer can, when buying the wood, ask about the origin of the wood and the company that is selling it needs to present sustainable documentation or stamps. Often customers aim at price and quality without knowing the origin, without knowing if they are financing illegal activities", warns Martins.

Processing triples wood value

More and more Brazilian companies that work with wood have incorporated the incentive to sustainable practices as assets of their businesses. In Pará, Tramontina, for example, seeks to combine the processing of wood in the state itself with legal and environmental concerns.

(Sidney Oliveira / O Liberal)

Today, the company processes around 1,200m³ of wood monthly. Through this volume, US$ 2.3 million is generated in finished products. According to the company, the value is almost three times the value of the wood before processing. In addition, not even small pieces of wood are dispensed: even the smallest pieces of the processes are reused for cutlery objects, for example.

“We carry out a set of procedures on a permanent basis, including analyzes of the authenticities and validities of the documents issued by Organs licensing agencies, in the different links of the wood production chain, in order to guarantee the legally originated wood, an indispensable criterion in our performance and business. In addition, it makes a rigorous selection of its suppliers, based on the survey of the history of debts, criminal records, environmental crimes, labor crimes, among others, with all this information obtained on official public bases”, comments the director of Tramontina, Antonio Pagliari .

Sector seeks to break image linked to illegal deforestation

It is a consensus among businessmen in the sector that legal logging activities still face tough obstacles in Brazil, especially from a bureaucratic point of view. In addition, the image of the logging activity is still often related to the process of burning or illegal deforestation, carried out by companies that operate outside the law and whose practices end up splashing on the reputation of those who work in a sustainable manner.

For forest engineer Thiago Valente, economic, social and environmental responsibility are prerogatives inherent in any regular environmental project, and, therefore, represent the main portal for combating illegal extraction. “Projects designed and executed within legal limits have the ability to generate good jobs, allow the establishment of good deals, with clients that excel in the activity based on sustainability criteria, provide an important protection gradient for forests and produce strategic data for decision-making by the public authorities, ”he says. The engineer points out that illegality, on the other hand, goes in exactly the opposite direction and must be combated.

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“While projects or activities carried out in spite of the law do not present a collective, social and environmental commitment, they aim only at immediate advantages, without generating permanent and quality jobs, without meeting the technical criteria necessary for the maintenance of forests and, in the process as a rule, they operate in a clandestine manner with absolute ignorance of the public authorities ”, he says.

In 2020, the Federal Highway Police seized almost 37,000 cubic meters of illegal wood - almost double the amount seized in 2019. The Federal Police (PF) confiscated the equivalent of R$ 427.7 million from groups or people caught committing some sort of crime. Of environmental crime - 81% more than the amount collected for the same crimes in 2019.

On May 19, this year, the Federal Police deployed 160 policemen to carry out 35 search and seizure warrants in the Federal District, São Paulo and Pará, at addresses linked to the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles. The operation was named Akuanduba. The operation is part of an investigation into alleged practices that would be favoring exports considered illegal.

For the Association of Wood Exporting Industries of the State of Pará and the Brazilian Association of Forest Concessionaires, there was no illegal or smuggled wood outside the country in the scope of the operation.

"We emphasize the fundamental need for a safe legal and political environment in the country, so that the business community can work and produce in a legal and sustainable way, as has been the permanent efforts of the associates. Unlike this, we will only have the repetition of political and media shows, not necessarily committed to the true sustainable development of our region", said the entities in a note.

For José Maria Mendonça, from the Federation of Industries of the State of Pará (Fiepa), the sector needs discernment, resilience and courage to continue working within the law despite criticism.

"We are all aware that we lost the communication battle; untruths are said to be absolute truths. Our path to the recovery of the State's timber sector is to continue to further qualify the sector's activities, modernize, and invite our politicians and the media crowd to visit forest managements. I insist, only speaking the truth, defending the legality and exposing our procedures. One day we will change this false narrative disseminated about the sector", he says.