SRCG will bring together producers interested in selling carbon credits

The SRCG - Rural Union of Campo Grande, Rochedo and Corguinho starts to receive demands from rural producers interested in trading carbon credits, starting this month of November. The initiative aims to bring together as many ranchers and farmers as possible, who have RL - Legal Reserve or APP - Permanent Preservation Areas, so that their forests can be added together, reaching an ideal amount to be sold, which must be at least 15 thousand hectares.

“Large companies such as Movida, Amazon, Gol Linhas Aéreas, are eventually looking to purchase these environmental assets. Our purpose is to mediate and help rural producers find solutions in the market and create extra income in the activity, which will make all the difference”, explains the president of SRCG, Alessandro Coelho.

The Union with the support of an environmental company, responsible for evaluating rural properties and creating the project, for possible commercialization.

At this stage, the company evaluates all the characteristics of the vegetation, as well as carbon capture emissions. “It is nothing more than a survey that directs us, pointing out whether this area is useful for arriving at the measurement value of the credit it generates”, explains Leandro Martins, from Produzza Agroambiental.

Outside of the partnership with SRCG, the company has already completed sales. But Produzza's main challenge is precisely to place these areas of different properties in a single contract. “Mato Grosso do Sul has a lot of reserves, there is a great aptitude for this business profile. Under my supervision alone, which became reserve quotas, there are already 184 thousand hectares, which will participate in the contracts”, adds Martins.

The president of SRCG created an area simulation to illustrate how advantageous the commercialization of carbon credits is. “A property dedicated to beef cattle farming can earn up to US$100 per hectare.

Considering that 20% of the area is dedicated to the Legal Reserve, capable of capturing 3 tons of carbon, at US$10 or US$12 per ton, we would then have at least US$30 per hectare per year. This corresponds to around 7,5% of the activity”, simulates Alessandro Coelho.

Although the law regarding carbon credit compensation is not yet regulated in Brazil, the co-founder of MSI Partners, Marcelo Sampaio, guarantees that those who come out ahead drink clean water. “It is not known what the final text of the law will be. It may or may not force companies to offset their emissions. Currently, companies proceed voluntarily, but we know that the trend is for demands to become increasingly greater”, explains Sampaio.

“In the case of rural producers, they already preserve themselves. What will change for the producer is that he will be paid to keep the forest standing. So, carbon credit comes to add revenue to this producer, to this process that he already does, which is to keep his legal reserve intact, adds the MSI Partners representative.

Regarding how the carbon credit calculation is made, Sampaio points out that each case is different, and needs to be evaluated in depth. “A detailed analysis of the area is needed. Each biome, each property, each massive forest preserved there will have unique characteristics. But to get an idea, we can work on viable projects that will provide us with at least one to three carbon credits per hectare per year. This varies a lot, even though the forest is the basis to be used as a parameter for the calculation. There are other elements, such as location and deforestation in the region. For example, a region that already has many open areas, here in Mato Grosso do Sul, for example, cultivation areas, are areas that have already been opened a few years ago, so these areas, possibly, may have a greater added value than than a forest area in Pará or Amazonas, where their forest massif is still quite large and has barely been disturbed”, explains Marcelo Sampaio.

To start a carbon credit sales process, three basic documents are needed: the CCIR - Rural Property Registration Certificate, the CAR - Rural Environmental Registry and the farm's KMZ. Using this documentation, it is now possible to create a preliminary analysis .

In total, it will be necessary to complete 7 steps to sell the credit and issue a certificate:

1 – DCP – Project Design Documentation

2 - Validation of the Project according to the CDM

3 - Approval by the National Authority

4 - Submission to the CDM Executive Board

5 - Project Monitoring

6 - Verification and Certification

7 - Issuance of Certified Emission Reduction

To facilitate and make processes and projects cheaper, SRCG encourages rural producers to carry out actions together, thus speeding up possible access to this new source of income for rural properties.