Sustainable Forest Management
ABOUT IT
Since 2011, ArcelorMittal's industrial plant in Juiz de Fora (MG) has been using charcoal produced in the group's sustainable forests as a raw material for steel production. ArcelorMittal BioFlorestas is responsible for the sustainable management of forests and the production of charcoal on 108,000 hectares of its own land in the state of Minas Gerais.
With the aim of increasing the effectiveness of biological pest control, in 2021 the company entered into a partnership with Sipremo. Through the use of a historical database of more than 30 years of occurrences of the main pests in ArcelorMittal BioFlorestas' areas, associated to a historical database with climatic variables and the use of Artificial Intelligence, it was possible to build a predictive model of pest occurrences in the Sipremo software.
Results and Objectives
The use of the software, combined with biological pest control, has helped to reduce the consumption of pesticides and water, as well as reducing the cost of the control operation, allowing pests to be identified at the start of the outbreak. In 2022, the software indicated the possibility of pests in 16,800 hectares of forest, of which 5,891 hectares were controlled biologically and 1,348 hectares required chemical control.
The project was completed in May 2023 and the main results obtained are:
1- Reduction of pesticide consumption by 90% in 2022;
Prediction accuracy above 80%;
2- Effectiveness of biological control in the early stages of infestation;
3- Reduction of control costs by more than 40%;
4- Emission of 25.6 tons of CO2eq avoided in 2022;
5- Greater agility in the process of monitoring, detecting and controlling eucalyptus pests in the region.
SDGs
12. Responsible consumption and production , 6. Clean water and sanitation , 9. Industry innovation and infrastructure
External Certification
Não
National Commitments
Brazilian Forest Code
More info
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