Gypsum Hub Reduces Environmental Impact and Seeks Markets

Tag : gypsum
Gypsum Hub Reduces Environmental Impact and Seeks Markets
Posted on: Tuesday, 16 September 2008, 15:00 CDT
According to anba: In less than one year, over 5,000 hectares ofdryland woods were preserved in the semiarid region of Pernambucostate. This preservation was only possible due to the use ofsustainable wood promoted by the gypsum hub of Araripe, located 700kilometres away from state capital Recife. This new raw materialcomes from areas of native vegetation (caatinga) but with plans offorestry management approved by the Brazilian Environment andRenewable Natural Resource Institute (Ibama-PE) and the PernambucoState Agency for the Environment and Water Resources (CPRH). TheNative Woods program was responsible for the solution found for theancient environmental problem the hub had, which placed businessmenand environmental organisations in conflict. Ibama proposed thecomplementation of forestry management for the extraction of woodin an environmentally correct way. "It is not a question of notusing wood, but of having a management plan so that we may count onthe caatinga for the rest of our lives," stated Jo?o ArnaldoNovaes, Ibama-PE superintendent. As a result, a program wasdeveloped to make the gypsum hub comply with the legislation, whichgenerated the intermediation of 41 companies since last year. "Theenergy question is a problem in the region, but there arealternatives. They include the use of branches pruned from cashewtrees in Rio Grande do Norte, Cear? and Piau?. After Ibamaoperation, most of the companies in the sector now haveenvironmental licenses. There are figures showing that between 80%and 90% of the wood comes from legal plantations," he pointed out.Sustainable firewood reduces the environmental impact on thecaatinga and also the number of environmental fines in the region."The plan of forestry management has become an important tool forenvironmental management," pointed out Novaes. According to a studyby the Ibama-PE, the gypsum hub in Araripe consumes around 1.5million cubic metres of firewood per year. After the adoption ofthe sustainable forestry management plan, 15% of the companies arealready using wood from the hub itself approved by the Ibama-PE andCPRH. Nine months ago, they were just 3%. The authorized firewood,originally from cashew and carob trees from other regions of thecaatinga, is used by 65% of the companies. The others use firewoodoriginally from native woods knocked down for alternative use ofthe land (agriculture and livestock farming). "The hub is close toreaching 100% use of sustainable firewood. The idea is to stimulatethe adoption of a plan for sustainable forest management, includingareas where firewood comes from the pruning of cashew and carobtress," believes the superintendent. The state of Pernambuco has30% of the gypsite reserves of the country and produces 95% of thegypsum consumed. Production is 2.8 million tonnes a year in anactivity that counts on over 600 companies. The region includes thecities of Araripina, Bodoc?, Ipubi, Ouricuri and Trindade, as wellas cities in the states of Cear? and Piau?. The hub generates12,000 direct jobs and around 64,000 indirect ones, according tofigures by the do Gypsum Industry Union (Sindugesso). Companyrevenues total approximately 640 million reals (US$ 357 million) ayear. Gypsite serves as raw material for several industries. Theore may be used in agriculture, as a corrective for soil, and, oncecalcinated, the product is used in the production of cement andgypsum for the civil construction, ceramic model, jewellery,automotive, medical and dentistry industries, among others. Despiteall these possibilities, in Brazil the product is still little usedif compared to Europe and the United States. Whereas here it is 15kilograms per inhabitant per year, in Europe, this proportion is 80kilograms per inhabitant per year and in the United States, thelargest consumer of gypsum in the world, it reaches 118 kilogramsper inhabitant per year. "Our building culture is Portuguese, usingstone, of houses that may last 100 years. In the United States andEurope there is greater mobility. But perspectives are for the newtechnology to make it possible to find greater space in the civilconstruction industry, which currently still makes very heavywalls," stated the president at Sindugesso, Josia Inojosa Filho.According to Inojosa, expectations are for consumption to growbetween 15% and 20% this year. "The Southeast consumes 45% of thegypsum produced in Brazil. Per capita consumption should rise to 17kilograms per inhabitant per year. In Pernambuco, it should risefrom 4% to 7% of the total, due to the greater use of civilconstruction in other activities," he pointed out. According to thepresident at Sindugesso, one of the great bottlenecks to growth ofthe gypsum hub is the difficulty of production. "The great futureis going to be the Transnortheastern Railway. With the railway, thecompanies may transfer the production in an easier way. The costwith transportation is very high and it hinders the sector frombeing more competitive," he evaluates. With the Transnortheasternrailway connecting regions and bringing multimode transportation,using trains and ships, the tendency is to triple production. "Thecurrent production of between 400,000 and 600,000 tonnes a year mayrise to between 1.8 million tonnes a year, for the cement industryalone. We take between seven and ten days from the date of order todelivery of the product in the Southeast. With the railway we couldhave a distribution centre," says Inojosa. When ready, theTransnortheastern highway should cover 1,860 kilometres, connectingthe ports of Pec?m, in Car? state, and Suape, in Pernambuco, toEliseu Martins, in Piau?. The delivery of 1,100 kilometres isexpected by 2010.