Uatumã Reserve in Brazil became FSC-certified in 2022

Through the combined efforts of Idesam and the Uatumã Reserve, the 44,000-hectare area has obtained FSC certification. It is currently the only certificate in the state of Amazonas to include both the timber and non-timber categories for forest products.

February became an important milestone for the work of Idesam in the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve. After a long process that involved capacity-building activities, technical assistance and institutional support, the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve's main association, the AACRDSU (Association of Agroextractivist Communities of the Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve) received FSC’s Forest Management and Chain of Custody certifications from the Institute for Forest and Agriculture Management and Certification (Imaflora). 

The certification, which is valid until January 2027, includes a production area of 44,000 hectares. It encompasses timber and non-timber forest products developed and sold by the Association. The products are part of the Inatú Amazônia collective brand, launched in August 2020, which today has a line with six oils (fixed and essential), from products of the Amazon biodiversity, as well as products made of wood. 

According to André Vianna, Idesams’s Technical Director, since the beginning of the certification process AACRDSU and Idesam focused on the use of the criteria and indicators of the FSC certification standard as a tool to improve the management of productive activities and form now on, the products will be able to access new markets and a better return on investment. f view.

"For us, this means the arrival of better days, with our production gaining and generating increasingly greater value,” says Diana Prado Costa, president of AACRDSU.  The certification is a very big achievement – and the confirmation that it is worth taking the time and effort to achieve better results.

According to FSC data, today, in the Amazon there are 7 certified Community Forestry Management plans, being the Uatumã plan the only one that contemplates both categories, timber and non-timber (such as resins, oils and fruits). In the Amazon, until then, only the community Vila Céu do Mapiá, located in the Purus National Forest, had obtained the timber seal for communities. 

"In recent years we have seen, besides a greater participation of small and medium-sized producers in the FSC system, a diversification of certifications that goes beyond timber. The story of the Uatumã association clearly exemplifies this trend and represents a paradigm shift - the forest in all its potential and the appreciation of the people who live and survive on it", says Daniela Vilela, Executive Director of FSC Brazil.