Major Carbon Investment in Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest
8/27/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: CSW Invests $5.4 Million in Brazilian Rainforest
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 27, 1999
CURITIBA, Brazil, August 27, 1999 (ENS) - Central and South West
Corporation (CSW) has announced a $5.4 million project to help protect
one of the world's most threatened natural areas while contributing to
the management of global greenhouse gas levels. CSW's subsidiary CSW
International is a partner in Brazil with Grupo Rede, a major private
electric utility group.
The funds will enable The Nature Conservancy and the Sociedade de
Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem (SPVS), a Brazilian conservation
organization, to restore, protect and manage about 20,000 acres of
Atlantic Forest in the state of Paran , and to promote sustainable
economic development opportunities in the surrounding community.
The project, the first of its kind in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, will
be located within the 775,000-acre GuaraqueĜaba Environmental
Protection Area.
"We are extremely pleased to take this action which will help conserve
one of the most biologically diverse and endangered ecosystems on
earth, while at the same time prudently reducing atmospheric carbon
dioxide (CO2) that may contribute to global climate change," said E.R.
Brooks, chairman and chief executive officer of Central and South West
Corporation. "We hope this project will serve as an example to others
to consider forest biodiversity conservation projects as having
multiple values and benefits."
The GuaraqueĜaba climate action project is the third such project that
the Conservancy has undertaken in partnership with U.S. based energy
companies and Latin American non-governmental organizations.
"This project will enable us to work with the community to reclaim,
protect and manage some of the most important natural areas in
Brazil," said Clovis Borges, executive director of SPVS. SPVS will own
and manage the lands acquired under the climate action project and
will work with the Conservancy and others to measure the net carbon
benefit of the project.
A growing forest absorbs the greenhouse gas CO2 through photosynthesis
and stores the carbon in its plants and soils. When a forest is
destroyed or degraded, the carbon that it had stored is released into
the atmosphere as CO2. By protecting existing forests and restoring
damaged areas, climate action projects provide net greenhouse gas
benefits that are measurable and verifiable.
Brazil's Atlantic Forest is one of the planet's highest priorities for
conservation. More than half of its tree species and nearly three-
quarters of its other plants are found nowhere else on earth. A total
of 171 of Brazil's 202 endangered species are found there. Yet, by
most estimates, only seven percent of the forest remains.
The GuaraqueĜaba Environmental Protection Area provides official
protection to the largest remaining area of Atlantic Forest. It is
home to at least 15 species of globally endangered birds, as well as a
species of primate, the black-faced lion tamarin, that was only
recently discovered by scientists. Many migrant bird species from
the United States, such as swallow-tailed kites and purple martins,
are found in GuaraqueĜaba during the northern hemisphere's winter
months.
Central and South West Corporation is a public utility holding company
based in Dallas, Texas. It owns four electric utility subsidiaries
with 1.7 million customers in the United States, a regional
electricity company serving two million customers in the United
Kingdom, and non-utility subsidiaries involved in energy-related
investments as well as subsidiaries that offer telecommunications,
energy efficiency and financial transactions.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999