The ‘Deforestation fronts: Drivers and responses in a changing world’ report, published by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), evaluates 24 deforestation fronts with significant concentration of deforestation hotspots and where large areas of remaining forests are under threat.
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Gran Chaco Biome
The Gran Chaco Argentino is the largest forest region of Argentina, with 28.5 million hectares of native forest. Charcoal is the main product of the native forests of the country, with 400,000tons per year, and 80% of this charcoal comes from the Chaco region. The Gran Chaco Americano is globally known for the quality of its charcoal.
As in all the charcoal production regions in the world, this activity is related to poverty and degradation resources conditions. Traditional carbonization processes have a return lower than 20%, creating toxic gas emissions that affect the health of workers. These processes are used on small scale by low-income families and produce forest degradation.
Despite these unacceptable conditions and the growing social concern for the sustainable use of natural resources, coal produced with unsustainable sources continues to meet international demands, even in markets with high environmental requirements such as the European Union.
We are to transform the current charcoal production into a more sustainable production technology. This technology consists of controlled pyrolysis conducted in kilns able to rapidly (8 hours) convert small-sized woody biomass (3 cm) into charcoal in an effective manner (3.5kg of firewood per 1kg of charcoal), complying with international standards: non toxic emissions, no uncontrolled waste, taking the most out of excess gas.
In this context, the project combines the required components to position itself as a better, profitable alternative: the efficient scale production, the export of charcoal as a specialty, the sustainable forest management, the traceability information for consumers, and the improvement on the conditions for producers and workers.
The project states that 4.5 tons of CO2 emission will be reduced per each ton of coal produced. This improvement is the result of the highest carbonization performance, the use of fine biomass, and the replacement of local energy by interconnected system.
The Gran Chaco Americano is a large biome extending to four countries (Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil), covering approximately 1,000,000km2.
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