$AZFL -Amazonas Florestal Mega DD AZFL Company Des
Post# of 94143
AZFL Company Description
Amazonas Florestal is a diversified forest management company generating profit through innovative, sustainable management of its large tracts of land in the rainforests of Amazonas, Brazil. Amazonas Florestal’s sustainable forest management strategy, with its green philosophy and method of cyclical harvesting, preserves ecosystems through habitat and water resource preservation, positioning it as an industry leader in responsible, eco-friendly timber practices.
Headquartered in Miami, FL, Amazonas’ goal is to become the leader in sustainable forest management, creating revenue while protecting the biodiversity of the rainforest ecosystem and enhancing the lives of the people who live in it. Through a strategy of selective harvesting, biomass production, and conservation incentives, Amazonas Florestal not only protects one of the world’s greatest natural resources, it also makes preservation profitable.
AZFL Products and Services
Amazonas Forestry and Timber Extraction Operations
Amazonas Florestal owns Title for a property denominated Fazenda Jatuarana. This property contains some 36,481 hectares or 90,146 acres of rainforest land located in the southern part of the State of Amazonas in Brazil and was appraised in 2011 by EB da Amazonia, a real estate appraisal company that has been credentialed through Banco do Brazil, at a fair market value of more than 77 MM BR Reais or approximately US$46 MM. Along with and completely independent of Fazenda Jatuarana, Amazonas Florestal has also acquired two fully approved forest management projects and their associated permits and licenses. Through these licenses AMZO is authorized to harvest approximately 14,000 cubic meters of timber. The Company's forest property and assigned and approved to extract forest land, have been recently audited by a P.C.A.O.B. (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) certified accounting firm as collateral to fund Amazonas Florestal's capital requirements needed to develop the properties and bring them into a profitable commercial status.
The wood products Amazonas Florestal exports require specific governmental approval. Amazonas Florestal maintains the necessary governmental permits for importing and exporting and meet any safety standards set. Yearly licenses and permit are required.
High rates of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon are the focus of both national and international concern. The Brazilian government heavily regulates the Timber Industry to make sure that all forest management practices are conducted in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. In the State of Amazonas specifically , the regulatory environmental protection agency known as IPAAM, or Instituto de Protecao Ambiental do Amazonia, has been granted ample powers by IBAMA , the Federal Environmental Agency to regulate, approve and enforce Sustainable Forest Management Projects. These regulations are so specific that an inventory of the forest resource is taken whereby 100% of the trees existing on a particular property are inventoried and cataloged by specie, diametric size and age.
Each of the harvestable trees found to be more than 60 cm at chest height and in the species of commercial value is tagged using aluminum tags and numbered according to the complete catalog tally. Engineers then come in to determine the environmental impact of felling those trees and the direction that each should be felled in order to minimize the damage to its surroundings and considering potential erosion once that tree is removed. No trees are felled within 50 meters of any stream, lake or river to protect the natural erosion of its bank.
A forest engineer is responsible to laying out an extraction program breaking down the property into 50 x 50 meter sectors and indicating the paths where equipment can be introduced and roads built when needed. Once the project is formulated it goes to IPAAM for approval. An LO – Licencia Operativa, Operating License, is issued and accompanied by an ACOF- Harvest Authorization. Once approved the amounts shown on these approval documents are entered in exact m3 quantities per specie and are allocated to the project owners in the IBAMA DOF system.
This federal control and regulative system not only fulfills verification that the timber extracted from each project is of legal origin but controls the transportation 100% from standing tree to finished product shipped locally or exported. This is achieved by the various steps in the system where an original DOF and Invoice need to accompany a log shipment from the project to the mill and contain information on the shipping method, whether by land or water with the license information for the shipper (truck tag, barge number, tugboat registry) Another DOF controls the product while shipped from the mill or manufacturing industry anywhere else.
Once brought to market, if done so internally in the Brazilian domestic market, the seller has to show a DOF number on each invoice and send a copy to IBAMA to have that amount removed from the system. In order to export IBAMA reviews the DOF and inspects the product upon shipment at the port of discharge.
These government agencies have the power to immediately halt any and all operations should any impromptu inspection reveal even the slightest discrepancy in size, quantities, species or environmental practices. Furthermore, continued Domestic and International pressure to protect the Amazonian rainforest can lead to more stringent regulations, or even the complete banning of all Timber operations in this region.
AMAZONAS FLORESTAL FOREST LAND: Fazenda Jatuarana
The Company primary land holdings is called Fazenda Jatuarana, which is located 389_kilometers from the city of Manaus, Brazil in the State of Amazonas. On December 14th, 2010, the Company commenced development of carbon studies on the land. This Fazenda Jatuarana represents 90,108 acres and has been recently appraised by EB da Amazonia, a certified appraisal company that specializes in the valuation of rural forest properties in Northern Brazil. The land was valued at BRL $ 77 Million which, at the time of the appraisal, was based on the concurrent exchange rate, equivalent to approximately USD$ 44 Million. The appraisal methods used were in line with acceptable GAAP principles to determine actual fair market value of the land and the netback to stumpage methods widely acceptable to calculate the net value of a forest resource.
Lago Preto Dos Ramos I
Lago Preto I has 979.12 hectares with an approved license for the extraction of 10,086.548 cubic meters of various species of semi-hard and hardwoods of commercial demand, both in the region and worldwide. Through the Operation License number 371/10, as authorized by IPAAM (Instituto de Protecao Ambiental de Amazonas).
Lago Preto Dos Ramos –II
Lago Preto II has 1,351.79 hectares, and contains 4,701.947 cubic meters of timber authorized for extraction through the IPAAM license number 538/10.
The Forest Engineer who managed the studies for the Company was the Company retained Ricardo Ludke, who was responsible for all of the technical and management aspects of the projects. Mr. Ludke's responsibility, working closely with IPAAM- Instituto de Proteccao Ambiental da Amazonas, the State of Amazonas, (the government agency that regulates and controls all such sustainable projects in the state), together with IBAMA, (the Brazilian EPA, in the approval and enforcement of all laws that govern such projects in Brazil), is to ensure that all of the felling and extraction is done in compliance with the low impact logging criteria that is described and as specified on the project literature as conditional for its approval by IPAAM. Mr. Ludke has a thorough background in the management of such projects having worked with several dozen such projects in the past with IBAMA in congruence with such platforms at a government level.
Additional Forestry Properties
The company has options to purchase another 303,000 hectares of virgin rainforest land from related parties to management and another 203,000 hectares from business associates of management and their families in Brazil.
CARBON CREDITS:
A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere.
Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) and may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases.[5] The categories include: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).[6] One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.
In the compliance market, companies, governments, or other entities buy carbon offsets in order to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are allowed to emit. This market exists in order to achieve compliance with obligations of Annex 1 Parties under the Kyoto Protocol, and of liable entities under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. In 2006, about $5.5 billion of carbon offsets were purchased in the compliance market, representing about 1.6 billion metric tons of CO2e reductions.
Carbon Credit In 2009, 8.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent changed hands worldwide, up 68% from 2008. The World Bank puts the overall value of the market at $144 billion.
The global carbon market is dominated by the European Union, where companies that emit greenhouse gases are required to cut their emissions or buy pollution allowances or carbon credits from the market, under the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. Europe, which has seen volatile carbon prices due to fluctuations in energy prices and supply and demand, will continue to dominate the global carbon market for another few years, as the U.S. and China—the world's top polluters—have yet to establish mandatory emission-reduction policies.
Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) projects focus on natural carbon sinks such as forests and soil. Deforestation, particularly in Brazil, Indonesia and parts of Africa, accounts for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation can be avoided either by paying directly for forest preservation, or by using offset funds to provide substitutes for forest-based products. There is a class of mechanisms referred to as REDD schemes (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation), which may be included in a post-Kyoto agreement. REDD credits provide carbon offsets for the protection of forests, and provide a possible mechanism to allow funding from developed nations to assist in the protection of native forests in developing nations.
Preservation of Brazlian Rainforests http://www.amazonasf.com/forests.html
AZFL Key Company Management
Michael Ibar, Chief Executive Officer
AZFL Contact Info
United States:
1110 Brickell Avenue Miami Florida 33131
Ph: (855) 33amazonas (332-6296)
FX: (305) 459-1829
Brazil:
Rua Salvador, Numero 120
12 Andar, Edif Vieralves Business Center
Bairro Adrianopolis, Manaus, AM
Brazil CEP: 69.057-040
T1: (55-92) 3878 2632
General Info. info@amazonasf.com
Employment Opportunities: employment@amazonasf.com
Investor Information: investor@amazonasf.com
website: http://www.amazonasf.com/
AZFL SEC Filings
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AZFL Headlines
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