CONSERV has just signed seven new contracts with large and medium-sized rural producers in Maranhão to maintain native vegetation that could be legally deforested on their properties. In all, more than 3,000 hectares have been protected in the state by the mechanism, avoiding the emission of 200,603 tons of carbon equivalent.
The initiative already operated in Mato Grosso and Pará and has now reached 32 contracts, totaling more than 27,000 hectares protected. In this new phase of the initiative, the goal is to contract a further 7,000 hectares of active areas by the end of 2025 in the states of Mato Grosso and Maranhão.
CONSERV is an initiative of IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute). In this second phase, with the aim of extending the benefits of this mechanism, CONSERV is being run in partnership with Produzindo Certo and the PCI Institute (Produce, Conserve and Include), with support from the SCF (Soft Commodities Forum) and Abiove.
As well as remuneration for maintaining the forest areas, a fire prevention plan is drawn up to guide rural producers on the measures needed to prevent and control fires on each property. ATER (Rural Technical Assistance) is also made available to support good practices in land use and improvements to increase productivity.
“Maranhão is strategic because it is part of MATOPIBA [covering Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia], a region on the frontier of deforestation that concentrates large remaining areas of the Cerrado, as well as the Amazon. The initiative shows that there are alternatives to deforestation and also helps to organize the landscape and protect biodiversity and environmental services, which are fundamental for agriculture,” says André Guimarães, IPAM’s executive director.
Paulo Rickli, one of the new farmers who joined the initiative, has been in Maranhão for 30 years. Affected by last year’s fires, he intends to use the money from the project to create fire prevention and control measures, as well as planting forest species in other areas of his property.
“We were already interested in conserving our forests and we think Conserv’s proposal is very good. This funding will help us to maintain the forest, make firebreaks to prevent fire, fight fires and forest the edge of the fields,” says the producer.
Isabela Pires, IPAM’s coordinator in Maranhão, explains that the initiative aims to expand alternatives for conservation in the state. “Implementing CONSERV is generating a unique and innovative opportunity for the region, providing additional income to rural producers for the ecosystem services provided by the native vegetation of the Maranhão Cerrado, reconciling production and conservation. Until now, no environmental conservation model had been implemented in the region with a focus on avoiding legal deforestation on medium and large properties,” he explains.
CONSERV
Launched in 2020, CONSERV is a mechanism that pays large and medium-sized producers for protecting areas of native vegetation that could legally be deforested.
The mechanism was developed by IPAM in partnership with the Woodwell Climate Research Center and EDF (Environmental Defense Fund).
Environmental conservation in Maranhão
In 2024, Maranhão was, for the first time, the state with the largest deforested area in Brazil – 331.2 hectares of native vegetation were cleared, representing an increase of 95.1% in the deforested area compared to the previous year, according to data from Mapbiomas Alerta.
Only 1.43% of the state’s territory is protected by conservation units, according to the PPCDQ (Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Fires in the State of Maranhão), most of which (75.61%) are for sustainable use, i.e. they allow economic activities to be implemented within their territories, in accordance with the SNUC (National System of Conservation Units).
Cover photo: Guilherme Oliveira and Lindomar Siqueira da Silva*
