Management and strategies | Sustainability | 100-Days plan

Fibria developed a short-term action plan called the “100-Day Plan,” designed to develop actions with an impact between September-December 2009, in order to demonstrate to a wide range of stakeholders the Company’s commitment to sustainability. Many of the plan’s actions were to continue in 2010 and others served as the basis for the formulation of objectives, mainly targets for subsequent years.

The majority of the actions of this plan are concentrated in the forestry base, especially maximizing the involvement with the various different neighboring communities, due to the size and importance of this production process. With regard to forestry partnerships Fibria believes that this type of relationship is of great importance for its socio-environmental performance because the farmers that are involved in the program directly influence their regional economies, participating in the Company’s chain of production at a vital stage — that is, the supply of its main raw material.

In order to facilitate the plan’s management and development, the actions were grouped into 9 main areas:

1 - Forestry Base

In the 252 municipalities where it has operations, Fibria neighbors many rural communities. The Company seeks to strengthen its relationships with these communities through a strategy involving engagement, social investments, and a differentiated approach regarding the solution of land conflicts and actions designed to conserve natural resources.

Indigenous communities – As foreseen under a Conduct Adjustment Agreement (TAC) signed in 2007, Fibria in 2009 contracted the Anaí organization to prepare an ethnic-environmental study. The organization and the Terms of Reference of the study were agreed to by Funai and the communities. Because of difficulties unrelated to Fibria, the ethnic-environmental study was not concluded in 2009, making it impossible to begin the projects. Fibria and the indigenous communities have worked side-by-side on a number of different occasions to resolve the problems and conclude the study, which is expected to occur during the first half of 2010. As the approval of the projects on the part of Funai and the communities, Fibria will offer support totaling R$ 1.8 million.

Community engagement – Fibria developed an intense community engagement program and its efforts with the Juerana and Helvécia communities, located respectively in Caravelas and Nova Viçosa, in the extreme south of Bahia, were highlights. The work at Juerana and Helvécia helped strengthen the traditional cultural and social values of the populations through joint planning and development of actions. In Juerana, a diagnosis of the community was carried out and, subsequently, an engagement plan was approved internally.

In these processes, more than 5,000 people representing different traditional communities of the regions were involved.

Job generation – The inclusion of the communities neighboring the forest plantations will be a permanent goal for Fibria. Within the 100-Day plan, this action was leveraged, with the following results:

  • Approval of the installation of a nursery to produce eucalyptus seedlings in the Helvécia community, which will have a significant impact regarding the generation of jobs, both direct and indirect, for the community;
  • Expansion of the hiring of local manpower in the neighboring rural communities on the part of outsourced forestry service companies;
  • The restructuring of forestry protection through training and hiring of local monitors; and
  • Vocational training in the communities in forestry maintenance of harvest operations.

Also noteworthy were three projects that were developed as part of the plan:

  • Helvécia Regional Culture Project: training was conducted and job and income opportunities created through a theatrical production, “Auto de São Benedito,” and through encouragement and assistance in sales of handmade products, especially apparel, involving some 400 persons;
  • The structuring of a fishery chain of production in Caravelas (BA): training was conducted focusing on entrepreneurial development of more than 1,000 persons, involving all of the local fishing communities. Follow-up actions encouraged adding value to the products (fish processing);
  • Bichos do Mar de Dentro: a project in the extreme south of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, involving 300 local craftsmen produces decorative objects, gifts, garments, stationary items, among other products, using the Pampa as the decorative theme. The project achieved nationwide status and now exports to a number of countries through a successful partnership with Sebrae.

Social investments – Particularly noteworthy were actions related to the Votorantim Partnership for Education, carried out in five municipalities (Alcobaça, Caravelas and Nova Viçosa, in Bahia; Conceição da Barra and Vila Valério, in Espírito Santo). This program, which involves the intense participation of Fibria’s employees, representatives of government and local communities, was developed by the Votorantim Institute to support and boost educational levels of young people in the regions on a continuous basis, through quality education and training events, including the mobilization of key local agents.

Conservation of natural resources on a local and regional scale:

  • Registration of Legal Reserve areas, pursuant to the Forestry Code (Federal Law 4.771/65), with the filing of requests with the environmental authorities between September and December 2009 involving about 167,000 hectares of Legal Reserves belonging to Fibria’s units;
  • Requests for recognition of three Private Natural Heritage Reserves (RPPNs) were filed with environmental agencies, totaling approximately 5,000 hectares of protected areas in biomes considered to be a priority importance, such as the Atlantic Forest and the Pampa, with Fibria’s RPPN to be the first in the latter biome: the RPPN Torrinhas (162 hectares, RS), the RPPN São Sebastião do Ribeirão Grande (602.87 hectares, SP) and the RPPN Esperança do Beija-Flor (2,925 hectares, BA);
  • Actions to support and facilitate the establishment and legalization of land for Public Conservation Units (UCs), including the Serra do Mar State Park (SP), the Mato Grande Biological Reserve (RS), the Pombo Municipal Park and the Jupiá and Capivaras (MS) UCs. This support mainly comes about through the donation of Fibria-owned land for setting up or legalizing the units.

2 - Forestry partnerships

The partnership models maintained by Fibria were reviewed and improved in order to enhance the shared economic, social and environmental benefits of the forestry activity together with local farmers and communities. To do this, a number of in-company meetings and seminars were organized to prepare a new partnership model that was adjusted to different social, economic and landholding profiles of the farming communities. This new model will be called the Fibria Forestry Savings Program. Its main characteristics are the following:

  • Fully inclusive process;
  • Wealth distribution, with the participation of the community directly in the Company’s business;
  • Offer of access to credit, technology, markets and environmental adjustments;
  • Encouragement of the diversification of production and the creation of value in forest plantations, adopting agri-forestry models.

3 - Industrial units

Notable actions included firmer implementation of the concept of eco-efficiency with regard to industrial activities and the construction and maintenance of a healthy relationship within the areas of influence of these units. These actions involved the startup of construction of an air quality station at Três Lagoas (MS) – scheduled for conclusion in June 2010, the introduction of the engagement process with the Barra do Riacho (ES) community and the increase, from one to three, in the number of ceramic companies whose brick production processes are being benefited through the use of industrial waste (pulp fiber and kaolin) generated by the Piracicaba (SP) mill.

4 - Certification

Certification of the Três Lagoas Unit by the FSC® was obtained. The unit now is doubly certified, because it previously had Cerflor certification.

The forests in ES and BA have initiated the preparation and planning process for obtaining FSC® certification.

5 - Global topics

Fibria participated in a number of events associated with the Parties Conference (COP-15) held in Copenhagen (Denmark) to debate and propose mechanisms to combat climate change. Furthermore, Fibria was one of the signatories of a letter signed by a number of Brazilian companies defending the taking on of commitments by the governments participating in the Conference.

6 - Stakeholder relationship

Fibria revised its stakeholder relationship actions, with the following highlights:

  • Participation in the Annual Meeting of the Global Forest Trade Network (GFTN) in the United States, organized by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), during which the Company presented its sustainability plans;
  • Participation in a meeting with Conservation International (CI) in Washington (USA), to present its activities in the field of sustainability;
  • Participation, together with a number of other companies and NGOs, in the signing of a Pact for Restoration of the Atlantic Forest, designed to bring together public and private institutions, governments, companies, NGOs and landowners to join forces and funds to generate concrete results in restoring and conserving biodiversity.

7 - Employees

Employees were the object of a number of different actions, mostly to disseminate and discuss the Company’s concepts and objectives in the field of sustainability and encouragement of volunteer activities. To this end, simultaneously with the Human and Organizational Development’s Semear (To Seed) Program, presentations were made to managers of all of Fibria’s units.

A number of volunteer actions were conducted during the period, including:

  • A campaign to help the municipalities affected by flooding (João Neiva and Ibiraçu in ES and São Luiz do Paraitinga in SP): the donation of mattresses, personal hygiene and cleaning materials, blankets, kitchen ovens, refrigerators and foodstuffs, among other items;
  • The Mini Company Program – Junior Achievement: production of handmade carpets (Decor Tapetes);
  • The Community Leadership Program – Junior Achievement: volunteers oriented middle school students in the creation of the Ajudarte Kids NGO, which organized recreational afternoons with underprivileged children through the Entidade Caic in Aracruz (ES);
  • Happiness Angels: The group came into existence when the Aracruz Unit launched its Volunteers Program. Once a month, the group visits patients at the São Camilo Hospital and seniors resident in the Recanto do Ancião home in Aracruz (ES);
  • V Day: Actions in all of the units including children’s recreation, the production of donation of toys, Christmas panetones, a Yuletide show, distribution of gifts and candies, a visit from Santa Claus, collection of donations of basic Christmas hampers and activities for seniors.

8 - Suppliers

The approach for this group seeks to improve understanding and application of Fibria’s sustainability principles and objectives, and had the following main results:

  • Effective participation in the Company’s volunteer activities;
  • A review of approval procedures, development and monitoring of suppliers with regard to sustainability issues;
  • Inclusion in fundamental processes with regard to carbon emission issues.

9 - Governance

A Sustainability Committee was established to support the Board of Directors and the Internal Sustainability Committee (CIS). These committees are designed to prepare the guidelines for the sustainability strategic and operational management actions.