The UNESCO Amazon Biosphere Reserve project, supported by LVMH, aims to support sustainable practices in the territory, with special attention to guaranteeing income-generating opportunities without deforestation, by supporting initiatives that complement existing management plans and programmes for conservation and sustainable use, adaptation and mitigation measures, and restoration efforts in the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve.
The Institute for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon (IDESAM) and UNESCO work on complementary projects within the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve.
Inatú Amazônia is a brand with a collective management and production strategy led by 6 social organisations and with technical assistance from IDESAM. Born out of IDESAM's partnership with associations and family businesses in Amazonas, it emerged as a result of the Forest Cities Project and is a collective strategy created for the production and commercialisation of Amazonian forest products.
The initiative has already benefited at least 2,500 people, involved 2.8 million hectares of forest, 11 social organisations, 3 vegetable oil mills and 3 community management plans licensed and in operation. The associations that are part of Inatu are located in the region of Lábrea, Silves, Carauari, Apuí and the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS).
In June, the eastern territory of the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve, the RDS do Uatumã, received a mission from the UNESCO and Manaus team to see for themselves the area and the activities that the project will be supporting: The Uatumã Mini Essential Oil Plant.
Welcomed by the IDESAM team - Marcus Biazatti and Wanderley Cruz, manager of the Uatumã mini oil mill, presented the entire production process, showing the stages and challenges of producing such precious oils within a conservation unit in the heart of the Amazon. This activity is just one of several that the extractivists have as a source of income, but it is the one that pays the best. We also visited the area where the essential oils are extracted, an area managed collectively by the Uatumã RDS.
Pitch (Prothium sp.) bioeconomy and circularity in practice
Native to the Amazon and abundant in the forests of the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), Breu has the potential to be widely used in perfumery and hygiene products, being used as a flavouring in perfumes and colognes and in the manufacture of soaps, for example. Limonene, present in white pitch oil, is a common component in fragrances and essences. White Pitch resin has powerful woody and spicy aromas that make it a rare and precious ingredient, much sought after in body care and perfumes.
In a study analysing1 the dynamics of deforestation in the region where the Uatumã RDS operates, it was found that carrying out production activities through good practices, product traceability and fair trade has made it possible to curb deforestation in the Uatumã RDS region, contributing to forest conservation and mitigating the impacts of biodiversity loss.
1. IDESAM, 2020. Deforestation Dynamics and Results of the Forest Cities Project
Each stage here is a cycle. We have various sources of income here in the reserve. There are colleagues who work in commercial fishing, but this year was a year in which almost no fishermen caught any fish. It was a very poor year for fish, the fish disappeared, I don't know if it was because of the drought that this happened.
In the past, rosin resin only had value for use in caulking boats. Nowadays, the plant has a group of 24 or 25 registered people, who offer the rosin, which has the oil extracted, and then the residue (the dust left over from extracting the oil) can be removed by the extractor and sold again to the company that makes the compound for heating boats. In other words, the producer earns twice as much and it's an operation that leaves no waste in nature, everything is used.
We've been adding value to products like rosin, which had no value before we didn't have the plant here. Before, they had no value on the market. My grandparents used to harvest the pitch and it had no value. Before, a buyer would only pay 1.50 reais a kilo and today the association is paying 7.00 to 8.00 reais a kilo. So that's improved a lot, right?
As demand grows, Inatu plans to expand its physical and production structure in order to keep up with the market and consolidate itself as a profitable and sustainable impact business. The UNESCO LVMH project is supporting Inatu and IDESAM on this journey.
Demand is increasing every year, we're receiving more raw materials and we're running out of space to store this product. So we're going to expand the plant's structure and make new investments in machinery so that we can double this production per month, as well as building a space for accommodation and a bathroom to increase the comfort and community of our employees during production.
The Pau Rosa (Aniba roseodora)
Aldemir Queiroz is an example of how the bioeconomy and the valorisation of local resources can transform lives. Formerly a traditional Pau Rosa explorer (using techniques that led to the species' near extinction), he is now the guardian of the Agroforestry System (SAF) he started in 2010, which includes planting Aniba roseodora to harvest the branches and leaves for the production of Pau Rosa essential oil.
This SAF is currently licensed and suitable for pruning the rosewood species, and new SAF plantations are being set up within the Uatumã RDS, which will guarantee the perpetuation of the species and its restoration in the biodiversity of the UC.
Marcus Biazatti, Leader of the Sustainable Production Strategic Initiative at the Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Amazon/IDESAM, says that the rescue of the rosewood species in the Uatumã RDS will take place by planting it in an Agroforestry System on approximately 50 ha of deforested areas over the next two years. These areas were previously used by family farmers and show potential for implementing SAFs.
As the Uatumã Mine expands and the demand for high value-added products increases, new Pau Rosa plantations are also coming on stream.
The aim is to recover anthropised areas by rescuing forest species that can generate income for families through the sale of branches, leaves, resins, seeds and oils.
