There’s a bold promise on every pack of Velvet tissues in the UK: “For every tree we use we replant three.” That’s the challenge with SCA’s British tissue brand has set itself, and it’s not as easy as it looks.
SCA is fulfilling its promise by reforesting areas in Brazil. Stewart Begg, environmental manager for SCA tissue in Europe, says: “We’ve chosen an area in the Amazon basin in the state of Pará which is well known for having been deforested.”
SCA is planting forests where forests used to be, but where trees were removed in the past to make way for pasture land.
The project includes financing and planting different domestic tree species, including Parica, Tambori, Freijo, and Cedro, encouraging biodiversity and supporting the indigenous population.
Creating a sustainable economic market
In the next stages, the project will also involve trying to create for a sustainable economic market for the domestic tree species, a conservation program and a social improvement program.
The first seedlings were planted in the earth in Pará state in October 2008, and the site underwent an external audit by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in December 2009. SCA is awaiting the report form this audit.
Source SENSE 1/2010, SCA's magazine on sustainability Images iSTOCKPHOTO / SCA