Peugeot Celebrates Anniversary of Amazon Reforestation Program

France’s Automobiles Peugeot marks the 10th anniversary of its Amazonian reforestation project this year and says more than 2 million trees consisting of 50 local species have been planted.

The carbon-sink project began after a meeting between Peugeot and the French National Forestry Board (ONF) in the fall of 1998, shortly after the Kyoto Protocol was signed.

Peugeot decided to undertake a 40-year scientific and ecological sponsorship campaign in Amazonia by fully financing the reforestation project with a view to carbon sequestration.

“The Peugeot-ONF carbon-sink project in Amazonia is a success,” Peugeot says in a statement. “It has demonstrated it is possible to carry out reforestation projects in the world, while ensuring they take into account a concern for the protection of biodiversity through the choice of species planted, and social aspects, through respect for and involvement of local populations and socio-economic stakeholders.”

Located in the north of Brazil’s Mato Grosso state and positioned on the “agricultural pioneer front,” the project is intended to serve as a pilot program.

“The primary aim of the project is to demonstrate it is possible to carry out reforestation with local species in Amazonia, and this reforestation, through the accumulation of atmospheric carbon in the wood through the process of the photosynthesis contributes, as the trees grow, to efforts to prevent the greenhouse (gas) effect,” Peugeot says.

“Ten years after its launch, the project has fulfilled its objective: two 3.9-sq.-m (41.9-sq.-ft.) areas of former pasture lands have been successfully reforested, largely with Amazonian species, and the storage of carbon dioxide on the project is monitored annually by an internationally recognized methodology.”