SA Impact Forestry Fund is an afforestation and reforestation project transforming degraded pasturelands in the Amazon region of Colombia. The operation is based on planting native species of hard wood and acai palms. The first phase includes an area of 550 hectares, with the future potential to be scaled to 7,500 hectares.
Addressing land degradation and soil erosion
Large areas of the project region have been transformed from native grasslands and/or gallery forest into low-productivity pasturelands for cattle or agricultural activities, leading to land degradation and soil erosion. A new afforestation and reforestation project, Amazonia Nativa, is set to revert the development and plant an area of up to 7,500 hectares with native species in the form of hard wood and acai palms.
Based on FSC and Rainforest Alliance certification
The overall purpose with the fund is to demonstrate that commercial operation with native species is durable thereby increasing the green forest of the Colombian Amazon ecosystem, benefitting biodiversity, and supporting the development of a sustainable wood value chain. The project is environmentally managed using forest management practices such as low impact logging, water protection, forest conservation and obtaining FSC certification.
20 per cent of the area will be planted with acai palms grown in accordance with Rainforest Alliance certification, or any other applicable certification. Moreover, the project will benefit local employment and sequester carbon.