This edition highlights Vale’s promotion of social, environmental and economic development in Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Pará and Minas Gerais and looks at the different areas of activity and initiatives supported by Fundo Vale.

Vale seeks to develop the communities in which it operates, guided by the purpose of improving lives and transforming the future. Fundo Vale shares these same values: it exists to drive a more sustainable, fair and inclusive economy. Together, we share dreams, worldviews and a lot of hands-on actions to change the future now.

This edition of Balanço Vale+ highlights some projects in our areas of activity and initiatives involving the positive social and environmental impact business ecosystem.

Here are some highlights of projects carried out by Fundo Vale: Vale’s Forest Goal: The aim is contribute to restoring and protecting an additional 500,000 hectares of forests by 2030. That includes protecting 400,000 hectares of existing forests and restoring 100,000 hectares of habitat by supporting businesses with positive social and environmental impacts. Fundo Vale is responsible for coordinating the restoration component of Vale’s Forest Goal.

Belterra: This enterprise supported by Fundo Vale seeks to restore 20,000 hectares by 2030 in Pará and to restore another 20,000 hectares in Bahia and Mato Grosso, contributing 40,000 hectares to our Forest Goal commitment.

Radix Investimentos Florestais: This crowdfunding company works with forestry systems. It will carry out a proof of concept with Fundo Vale for planting native species in the Amazon. It will enable environmental and economic gains through conservation, as part of the business promotion component of Vale’s 2030 Forest Goal.

Cubo Itaú: Fundo Vale recently became one of the supporters of Cubo Itaú, the largest innovation hub in Latin America. Created eight years ago by banking group Itaú Unibanco, it is currently made up of a community of 400 domestic and international startups. Our partnership seeks to expand access to the hub’s innovation opportunities by connecting the partners supported by Fundo Vale that work with forest conservation and recovery and the bioeconomy.

Amazon Journey: Fundo Vale helped launch the Amazon Journey platform, an initiative led by the CERTI Foundation. Today, it is a funding partner along with Itaú, Santander, Bradesco and the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA). The aim is to stimulate an innovative and scalable bioeconomy business environment in the Amazon in order to promote the competitiveness of intact forest. Its goals by 2026 are to mobilize 20,000 talented people for entrepreneurship in the region, create 200 bioeconomy startups, train 100 businesses, invest in 30 ventures, engage 10 anchor companies and accelerate 10 organizations that help boost this ecosystem.

Productive restoration through agroforestry systems: The collection of seeds and identification of mother trees is one example of how strengthening partnerships has contributed to the progress of Vale’s Forest Goal. On the recovery front, the strategy is to invest in productive restoration that can boost the economy of the Carajás National Forest region, in Parauapebas, through agroforestry systems, which are land use models. In these systems, tree species (fruit and/or timber) are grown alongside species of agricultural interest, thus promoting economic and ecological benefits. Belterra, founded in 2020 with funding from Fundo Vale, is one of several businesses that are testing the agroforestry system model as a sustainable and viable option for environmental conservation. According to its founder, Valmir Ortega, the aim is to spread agroforestry systems across the Amazon, Xingu and Carajás cocoa growing regions over the next seven years, to produce 60,000 metric tons of cocoa – equivalent to Pará’s total output today – and generate 2,000 direct rural jobs and thousands more in the logistics chain. This is an opportunity to help keep the forest standing and discourage people from seeking a livelihood from unsustainable exploitation of this resource.

The Business of Cocoa Farming – A Practical Guide for Farmers: This booklet was produced by the Vale Institute of Technology – Sustainable Development (ITV-DS) in partnership with Fundo Vale, in order to guide producers through the entire process of growing cocoa beans. The main aim of producing this material was to provide practical guidelines for good management of rural enterprises. The booklet was designed and produced based on field research carried out in 2021, in which socioeconomic and production data was collected from 360 cocoa farmers in Medicilândia. The publication points out ways to improve and enhance production in an organized and sustainable way, as part of the bioeconomy. The guide, which had an initial print run of 1,800 copies, covers a variety of topics, including the establishment of enterprises’ mission and values, their financial organization, the use of tools to guarantee high performance, and the correct planning of property use to ensure the longevity of production.