Conservation project in the Amazon uses carbon credits to avoid deforestation

In the area, equivalent to around 20 thousand football fields, nine cameras were spread across the property to record the animals that roam the forest. This is how the team manages to showcase biodiversity.

The proposal came from the São Paulo company ZEG, which seeks properties in the Amazon with legal potential for deforestation to develop conservation initiatives through the Vale do Rio Branco project. Instead of deforesting the forest to plant soybeans, for example, the company invests in maintaining trees and generating carbon credits.

Carbon credit is a way of transforming forest preservation into money. When an area that could be deforested is left standing, the project calculates how much greenhouse gas emissions no longer occur because of conservation.

These credits can be sold to companies that want to offset part of the emissions they produce. The money paid for the credits helps to finance the project and, in this case, to keep the forest preserved and animal life intact.

"When we manage to make a producer who has the legal right to deforest, who was on the path to deforest, change route, we end up avoiding emissions that would go into the atmosphere. For every ton of carbon that we avoid emitting, which is the carbon stored in trees, we have the right to issue a carbon credit. This credit serves to offset the emissions of large companies that have commitments to, in some way, offset the carbon they generate and that contributes to global warming", explains Carlos Jacob, executive director of ZEG.

"When we manage to identify, we can check which species of animals inhabit the region, how they are impacted and whether they are in the process of migrating. Our fauna monitoring system was installed at strategic points on the farm. With the data collected, we were able to check, in the reports, how the diversity of animals is within the area", he highlighted.

In addition to the cameras that record the animals, a structure installed at the top of a tower monitors the region in search of fires. The equipment has a 360-degree vision, is operated by artificial intelligence and can identify signs of fire within a radius of up to 30 kilometers, which helps the team to act quickly to prevent the fires from advancing through the forest.

But conservation doesn’t just depend on technology. Residents who live in the region also participate in the initiative and can continue using the forest for activities that generate income, it is like "conservation agriculture".

This is the case of producer João Inácio Neto, who joined an association of chestnut collectors. Residents have the right to use the chestnut trees and can collect and sell the product.

"As part of this project, he brought us, chestnut growers who had been working here for over 10, 15, 20 years, to set up an association where we are working", said João.

The preserved area is close to regions that have already been deforested, which shows the pressure on the forest. The project's aim is to create an economic alternative so that keeping the vegetation standing is more advantageous than tearing it down.

The experience is still recent, and the impact of the carbon market on reducing deforestation can only be assessed over time. For now, the cameras show what remains protected when the forest is left standing.