Petrobras to Reforest Area 100 Times Greater than Rio’s Botanical Gardens

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On August 9th, Petrobras signed a TAC (Conduct Adjustment Agreement) under which it will be required to invest R$814 million (US$204 million) in social and environmental initiatives in the State of Rio de Janeiro. A part of these initiatives has been described by the State Prosecutor’s Office as “probably the largest forest rehabilitation in the history of Rio de Janeiro.”

The TAC, signed between the state-owned company, the Prosecutor’s Office and the State Government, provides for compensatory actions for the construction of COMPERJ (Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro). The estimated cost for reforestation alone will be R$396.8 million, involving planting and maintaining 5,660 hectares, an area is more than 100 times that of the Rio Botanical Garden.

This project is currently developing actions in the Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve, where 240 hectares of deteriorated areas have been rehabilitated, with the planting of 370,000 seedlings since 2004. Between 2013 and 2015, Guapiaçu Grande Vida has planted another 100 hectares, now in its maintenance stage. The project only uses native Atlantic Forest species for reforestation.

The TAC was an initiative by Petrobras itself. Through the agreement, the company intends to enable the initial operation of COMPERJ scheduled for 2021, with the operation of UPGN (Natural Gas Processing Unit). The state-owned company will allocate R$98 million to sanitation works in Itaboraí and Maricá, with a portion of the investments planned in the agreement.

The commitments undertaken by Petrobras place it as the funder of the Rio de Janeiro State Water Security Plan, to be prepared by the State Secretariat of Environment and Sustainability. The plan is designed to ensure water supply to the population, despite the increasingly frequent drought situation.

Forest restoration will mainly take place in the rivers of the Guapi-Macacu hydrographic basin, near COMPERJ, in the municipalities of Itaboraí, São Gonçalo, Guapimirim, and Cachoeiras de Macacu. These rivers flow into Guanabara Bay.

From the total area to be reforested, 5,005 hectares had already been demanded when the environmental licenses for COMPERJ were granted, in the previous decade. A further 660 hectares are an additional commitment that the state-owned company has undertaken by now signing the Conduct Adjustment Agreement.