Plantations IMAFLORA
An Impact Assessment recently conducted by researchers from Sao Paulo University shows clear benefits of FSC certifying plantations in the Southern part of Brazil.
The study, which compared the performance of certified plantations to a non-certified control group, was commissioned by the NGO IMAFLORA. All FSC-certified plantations included in the study were certified by the Rainforest Alliance based on evaluations done by IMAFLORA.
Luciana Maria Papp from IMAFLORA commented: “The study presents clear evidence of the benefits of FSC certifying plantations within a wide range of social aspects, such as worker’s health and safety, capacity building, handling of agrochemicals, and relation with local communities. Even the salary level of forest workers is higher in certified plantations compared to non-certified”.
Certified plantations also did significantly better than the control group with respect to environmental protection. For example, the certified plantations had carried out significantly more studies on flora and fauna, planted more native species, and none of the certified plantations showed any signs of forest conversion, in contrast with 60% of the control enterprises. Certified plantations were significantly more efficient in terms of controlling invasive species in permanently protected areas.
All certified plantations performed monitoring of environmental legislation, while this was only the case among one-third of the non-certified plantations. Papp noted: “Due to recent changes in the legislation, it’s currently a challenge for plantations to ensure full legal compliance, and FSC certification is clearly helping to enforce legislation in practice”.
According to IMAFLORA, by conservative estimate minimum 28% of all FSC-certified forest land in Brazil are plantations.
About the Study
The study compared the sociao-environmental performance of 7 FSC-certified plantations wth the performance of 7 non-certified plantations. The sample groups were selected at random from a wider group of plantations sharing key characteristics, such as geographical location, size and number of employees.
About IMAFLOA
IMAFLORA is a Brazilian NGO with the mission to encourage socio-environmental changes in forestry and agriculture. It applies FSC certification in collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance SmartWood Program, as one of the tools to achieve its mission. IMAFLORA provided the third-party evaluations for the FSC certification of the very first plantation in Brazil, Klabin S/A - Unidade Florestal Paraná.
