Cattle farmer Mauro Lucio de Castro Costa has set aside the forest on his land in Pará, Brazil, for conservation. That means that 1,142 hectares of Amazonian rainforest are being protected, in an area known to be highly vulnerable to deforestation and forest fires.

Mauro has also created an innovative, sustainable cattle-farming project, called Pecuária Verde (‘green cattle-ranching’). So not only does he protect a large forest area but he is also spearheading efforts to get more out of existing farmlands – and reduce the need to cut down more forest.

What’s the background?

As elsewhere in Brazil, the forests around Maruipara Farm are vulnerable and under pressure from human activity. It’s estimated that 60% of the total deforestation in the state of Pará is to down to opening new pastures for livestock. This makes Mauro’s sustainable cattle farming project particularly meaningful.

What is the solution?

As well as conserving all of the rainforest on Mauro’s land (above the 50% required by law), the project promotes social and environmental transformation in animal ranching, through pasture rotation, pasture fertilization and animal welfare protection.

What are the benefits?

The Amazon is a massive carbon sink. It is also responsible for climate regulation and rainfall distribution across all of South America, so protecting the forest is crucial to maintain water bodies and constant rainfall, benefiting rural productivity.

And this project aims to extend the knowledge of sustainable farming and management techniques to other rural producers, so a new generation of green farmers will help conserve the Amazon rainforest for the future.