Amazon 4.0 and the privilege of participating in a major sustainability project

I am privileged and I am grateful for that every day. But what really touches me is how the issues come to me and lead me to this position. I came into contact with a project called Amazônia 4.0 and was amazed by its scope, the benefits it will generate and, most importantly, by having the privilege of actively participating in this initiative.

You know that story about not giving the fish, but teaching how to fish? The project is much more than that. Amazônia 4.0 will bring the necessary knowledge so that Amazonian people can add value to what they produce or extract from the forest and which, today, generates only a fraction of the profit it could generate.

To explain further, using a practical example: today a community near Belém (PA) that produces cocoa sells the fruit's seed to large or medium-sized industries so that they can benefit from this production for the manufacture of chocolate.

Imagine if the same people who plant, cultivate and harvest cocoa could sell this partially processed production – roasted and ground – for example? The product could be sold with a much higher profit margin.

Read more: Amazon 4.0 Project foresees sustainable exploitation of biodiversity

Another major difference of Amazônia 4.0 is the use of high technology in this process. Another practical example: imagine if that small cocoa producer had access to a grinding and roasting process using highly technological equipment that allows them to produce superior quality cocoa powder, meeting the highest quality controls? Even higher profit margin.

However, the biggest difference of the project, and one of its pillars, is that it is not just about qualifying extractive activity, but giving the ability to carry out this activity with the forest standing, without deforestation or pollution, creating a large ecosystem and innovation, sustainability and business generation.

The creators are developing a laboratory built in modules that can be moved and this laboratory demonstrates how a bioindustry can develop. Units like the one being built in São José dos Campos with support from the University of Vale do Paraíba can be taken to areas that are difficult to access and are based on two essential points: electrical energy and connectivity.

Aldo's participation in Amazônia 4.0, a privilege already mentioned above, begins with the donation of a photovoltaic solar generator capable of providing the necessary energy for the laboratory where training activities for producers are carried out in the place where they live.

For Ismael Nobre, one of the creators and developer of the project, Aldo's participation is much more than just a donation: “Aldo, in the form of CEO Aldo Pereira Teixeira, has focused the commercial activity it has carried out for 40 years on disseminating the use of sustainable energy, solar energy, which is fully linked to ecology and the preservation of resources. And that is exactly the objective of Amazônia 4.0: to maintain the forest and allow communities to develop without destroying it, using high technology,” he said.

“Some industries support the cause. Aldo's own activity is linked to the objective of the work. Who knows, in the future, after the training we offer, a group or cooperative might think about purchasing a generator like ours to enable its own bio-industry project?”, points out the professor and PhD internationally recognized for his involvement in sustainability issues mainly linked to Brazilian Amazon”, he added.

Knowing that we can help a community located in a difficult to access location to develop and 'walk on its own two feet' is like making more and more people understand that clean and cheap energy can be achieved.

It is, indeed, a great privilege to be able to participate in a project like Amazônia 4.0. We have a lot in common, starting with the understanding that innovation can be used to sustainably maintain our natural resources to preserve the future of the Amazon region.