New Tool Maps Areas Susceptible to Forest Fire and Deforestation in the Amazon

The Vale Fund, an initiative held by Vale, is investing R$ 250,000.00 in an artificial intelligence project designed to map the areas susceptible to forest fires and deforestation in the Amazon. The project is being developed by Imazon in partnership with Microsoft. This information may be used by public authorities in preventive actions to fight and control such hazards and can help in the identification of the best areas for forest restoration and environmental conservation, thus contributing to Vale’s Forestry goal.

The tool will analyze several data including the development of illegal roads in forest areas and data from satellite images to identify land-use change trends. The technology is expected to arrive in next dry season in the Amazon, in July 2021.

Since 2008, Imazon has been reporting monthly the rate of deforestation and forest degradation in the region through the Deforestation Alert System (SAD), which was implemented with support from the Vale Fund. The current project is an upgraded version of this system.

Vale has been operating in the State of Pará for over three decades and has been investing in the conservation of the Amazon Rainforest for many years. Through the Vale Fund, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2020, we support more than 70 initiatives from social and environmental institutions and startups intended to protect more than 23 million hectares of forest.

Learn about our biome conservation initiatives

Our company has been operating in the State of Pará for over three decades and has been investing in the conservation of the Amazon Rainforest for many years. S11D, Vale’s largest and most recent mining project located in Canaã dos Carajás, in the south of the state, already has an automated extraction and production process in place. For every metric ton of ore produced, the company is now able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, and water usage by 93%.

Vale also helps ICMBio preserve six protected units that form the largest area of ​​continuous Amazon rainforest in the south and southeast of Pará. This year, this partnership for environmental conservation was reinforced with a new project, called Horizontes, which should increase reforestation and foster the sustainable use of areas surrounding these units.

The company has also announced new measures to mitigate global warming in compliance with the Paris Agreement. Within this global pact, Vale will invest at least US$2 billion to reduce its direct and indirect absolute emissions (scopes 1 and 2) by 33% by 2030. Other targets include recovering and protecting 500,000 hectares of native forest over 10 years and self-generate 100% of electric power from clean sources.