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ASF is a triple bottom line focused company: (a) we protect the environment by preserving the forest cover and avoiding CO2 release (about 500 tons CO2 per hectare); (b) we create long lasting employment and valuable social services for our local communities; and, (c) we deliver recurring financial returns to our investors.
Over the last forty years, the Brazilian Amazon has lost almost 800,000 square kilometers, an area the size of the entire US eastern seaboard from South Carolina to Maine, a size equivalent to the combined areas of the UK and France. Scientists are noticing something disturbing in the Amazon rainforest: deforestation is leading to the failure of the forest ecosystem.
Many scientists believe we are reaching a tipping point. Within five years the Amazon biome may cease to be a rainforest and become savanna-like with semiarid vegetation at current deforestation rates. This will have significant consequences on weather patterns and wreak havoc on agricultural production around the world. ASF wants to help reverse this trend.
80% of ASF properties are devoted to sustainable harvesting. (This also provides cash-flow from project outset.)
On the remaining 20% of its properties (current and future) ASF implements reforestation plantations with high value exotic species (i.e. teak, mahogany, rosewood, paricá).
Traditionally…
The ASF Brazil Approach…
Property owners will clear cut the 20% allowed by law and place livestock on the land (demonstrating “beneficial use”, and thus safeguarding against expropriation).
We break out our 20% into 20 different annual lots. Each year we harvest one of the 20 lots and replant it with high quality species (ie teak, paricá, etc.).
Although their ROI is high on the front end, after clear cutting the land and placing livestock, the land is not sustainably viable without further investments.
This means each year we are only transforming 1% of the total forested lot.
ASF Brazil’s low impact transformation ensures the integrity of the forest:
100% maintenance of erosion protection;
100% maintenance of the evapotranspiration cycle;
100% maintenance of CO2 absorption;
100% biodiversity on 80% of the forest.
The reforestation cycle for teak is 20 years, with periodic thinning in years 8 and 17.
Maintenance of CO2 Absorption
Maintenance of erosion protection
Maintenance of the evapotranspiration cycle
Biodiversity on 80% of the forest
ASF owns plantations of 0 to 23-year-old teak and paricá trees.
We produce seedlings for rosewood, mahogany, teak, and parica.
After many years devoid of wildlife, this 10,000 ha area – reforested by ASF – has seen the return of the Amazon Jaguar, once native to this region, but now all but gone because of the rampant deforestation that has stricken the Amazon.
ASF is very concerned with giving back to the communities where it operates. Through our sawmill operations we employ over 500 people, both directly and indirectly. As we expand into more remote regions of the Amazon we envision revitalizing communities which are living at subsistence levels and also threatening the forest. Upon completion of our baseline cluster of 250,000 ha we will have impacted the lives of almost 20,000 people!
We empower communities along four different, but interrelated areas:
Land prices in Brazil are significantly less than in other regions of the world. Furthermore, tree growth is significantly faster.
Comparison of land prices (US$/ha) and timber growth rates:
ASF holds purchase options to over 1M hectares of forest land in the Amazon. Although it may seem like a lot (25% of the area of Switzerland), it is only 0.25% of the Amazon!
ASF expects financial returns over a 20-year period to be 15% to 25% per anum.