Navigator Company - The Newsletter - Sept 2019

oCTOBER 2019

Journey into Navigator We invited Alice Vieira, Catarina Pedroso, Sérgio Ribeiro, Constança Arouca and Lourenço do Rosário to spend a day at The Navigator Company.

The result? Five different stories, each from a personal perspective.

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knowledge

TransparEncY: SCOPE AND CHALLENGES A

As well as their natural beauty and unmistakable scent, eucalyptus trees generate economic wealth for Portugal and are important for the carbon they retain

company unprepared to make a serious commitment to transparency and building trust with its stakeholders cannot be sure of sustainable growth in the future.

The cover story for this edition of The Newsletter is a special feature on transparency, an issue of growing importance that demands our attention in the light of the social trends marking the early years of the twenty-first century.

Just a few years ago, transparency was something of a buzzword for activists, but it has been claiming a central place in the mindset and work of managers, who have realised that the trust of stakeholders (shareholders, associations, customers, employees, local communities, government and regulatory agencies, suppliers, NGOs…) is essential for ensuring a sustainable path to growth.

The days when companies felt compelled to do little more than publicise their financial success and promise advantages for their consumers, through advertising in the traditional media, are long past.

Today, society's expectations and demands have changed. With access to rolling global news coverage, online news, social media with opinions and viewpoints on everything, sometimes with fake or unfounded reports, society has become more demanding in wanting better information, in order to form opinions and decide how to act in relation to a wide range of new and pressing issues, of which we are all aware: the environment, climate change, equality, globalisation, growth, the digital revolution, safety, sustainability, privacy…

Successful and discerning companies have moved away from a style of communication focused on promoting their identity and highlighting what they want people to see in them, to a more thoughtful approach to managing their image, considering how they are seen by their stakeholders, and particularly how people value what they do and their contribution to individuals and to wider society, on matters of great social importance.

These changes have posed new challenges.

The issues addressed are much more diverse, as are the media and forms of communication used, as companies reach out to more and more people. This is the age of communication "touch points" and image training, involving everyone with some sort of relationship with the company, whether they are employees, customers, suppliers, local communities… all these

groups are much more relevant to how a company builds its image.

In this new world of diversity, a clear and explicit commitment to transparency and trust is the only way to build and preserve a consistent image and a clean reputation in the eyes of society, ensuring that people understand the company's value and the importance of its growth.

This is not an easy road to travel. For many people, transparency is still something to be wary of, especially when they are afraid of exposing the truth. But the way ahead is clear and any organisation that lives in fear of being found out will find it hard to arrive at a sustainable and promising future.

With transparency and trust, customers will want more products, investors will want to buy more shares, employees will work harder, and so on.

A belief in transparency and trust means being honest about our business aims, being clear about what we intend to do or not to do, in every field, sharing information and reaching out to the community. It means letting people in, to see our factories and our actual workers, rather than an actor in an old-fashioned advertisement, artificially recreating a working environment.

An example of this wide-ranging relationship with society is Navigator's active involvement in 39 different associations in Portugal and abroad, where in most cases it is represented on the elected bodies. These associations work in areas as diverse as forestry, the paper and pulp industry, port operation, climate change, the environment, bio-industries, sustainable development, energy, innovation, research, logistics, oceans, quality and the future of employment, to name a few.

This is the path that Navigator has sought to follow in engaging with society. To find out more about this, there is no better place to start than our Sustainability Report, available on the company website.

The guest contributors to this edition of The Newsletter and the varied topics it addresses are clear evidence of our commitment to transparency and to creating value for society. We are delighted to show people what we do every day, how we work and stay sustainable, as well as dispelling some of the myths associated with our industry.

Vítor Novais Gonçalves Member of the Board of Directors

81% Increase in group visits to industrial units in 2018

Welcome

board

CONTENTS

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Published and coordinated: Corporate Communications and Brand

EDITOR: Rui Pedro Batista

Design: Ray Gun / Creativity Worldwide

CONTENTS: Key Message Comunicação Estratégica

Owner/ Publisher: The Navigator Company

Address and editorial office: Av. Fontes Pereira de Melo, 27.

1050-117 Lisboa

Journey to the centre of Navigator We opened Navigator's doors to five guests. P 6

Print:

Alice Vieira Visited the Espirra nurseries and the Setúbal mill. P 8 Catarina Pedroso Visited RAIZ, our research centre, and the Aveiro Mill. P 11 Sérgio Ribeiro Visited the Caniceira estate and the mill in Vila Velha de Ródão. P 14 Constança Arouca Visited the mill in Figueira da Foz. P 17 Lourenço do Rosário Visited our project in Zambézia province, Mozambique. P 20 Navigator Tour When the year draws to a close, around five thousand people will have visited Navigator's mills. P 28

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Country life Nelson Sérgio rented his land to Navigator. P 30

P 34

Preserving heritage Navigator preserves architectural remains located on a forestry plantation. P 34

Printed on Inaset Plus Offset paper 100 g/m2, sourced from responsibly managed forests.

Exempt from registration with ERC under Reg. Dec. 8/99 of 9/6 Art.12.1-a).

Legal deposit nº 000000/18

Frequency of publication: Bimonthly

Safety The paper industry card that ensures the safety of the company's external workers. P 38

Print run: 1101 copies

printeD BY: OCYAN

Host Ana Duarte, from the Forestry Department, tells us about Arouca. P 46 Guest João Wengorovius Meneses, secretarygeneral of BCSD Portugal, talks about sustainability and making the right consumer choices. P 47

P 38

Distribution free of charge

Rural WORLD needs Forests T he facts are familiar, as crystal clear as they are worrying: Portugal moves at two speeds.

The official figures show that around 60% of the population lives in Portugal's coastal areas, and around 45% of the total is concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon (2.8 million) and Porto (1.7 million). So it is no surprise that the statistics tell us that 83% of the country's wealth is produced in an area hugging the coast of mainland Portugal.

This begs two questions. First, what has become of rural Portugal? And equally, if not more important, what can and should be done to ensure that rural flight and demographic ageing in interior regions are no longer seen as unstoppable.

There is obviously no easy answer, and we need to resist the temptation to over-simplify the issues.

But we know that researchers had looked into the matter and that measures have even been implemented to retain and attract people to these regions, in some cases with EU funding. But despite good intentions, it has been difficult to stem the flow away from the countryside.

There is a pressing need to reverse this worrying loss of human capital from the interior, because no policy for territorial, economic and social cohesion will succeed without looking at demographic questions – if it fails to consider the fundamental element in the equation: people.

Human capital is of course closely connected to natural capital, territorial integrity and the preservation and renewal of resources. The exodus from interior regions of Portugal is one of the reasons why we live today with the consequences of untended woodlands, abandoned by their owners, meaning they are less productive, less able to capture CO2 and more exposed to the risk of fire. The proposal for review of the National Territorial Planning Policy Programme, published in July last year, points out that "growth in the area of woodlands without active management" is largely the result of "shifts in population away from the interior and into coastal areas, with the abandonment of agricultural and forestry holdings".

This official report takes this reasoning further: "well-tended woodlands are essential for the biophysical functioning of the territory, in particular for the water cycle, promoting seepage and replenishment of underground waters. The retention of solid matter (plant matter and sediments) is also essential for conserving the soil and maintaining adequate levels of organic matter, especially in the context of climate change."

As we said, the research has been done. And it appears clear that active and sustainable management of woodlands, guided by good forestry practices, is essential for ensuring the sustainability of our environment, society and economy, especially in country where land holdings are predominantly small, where the fire risk is significant and much of

the land with socio-economic potential is under-exploited, as a result of its owners drifting to the cities or lacking the financial means to invest.

From its everyday experience as a forest-based enterprise, The Navigator Company is no stranger to this story of under-realised potential in Portugal's interior regions. This is why, in addition to just purchasing raw material, we have developed relationships with forestry producers based on sharing expertise, offering economic incentives and support, educating people about the values of sustainable forestry management and, of course, certification – an essential feature of the raw material we use. In other cases, for example, landowners choose to lease their land to Navigator, trusting in its professional management of their holdings.

This helps to increase the area of woodlands under active management, and so more resilient.

Forest-based industries, which include the pulp and paper sector, account for around 2% of Portuguese GDP, and for approximately 10% of the country's exports, In Portugal, forests have been the foundation for an economic sector that generates between eighty and a hundred thousand direct jobs. In all, around 12,500 companies operate in the different forestry sectors, and most of these (more than ten thousand) are micro-enterprises, with between one and nine workers.

In order for these numbers to grow and contribute to increased economic, environmental and social well-being in rural Portugal, it is fundamental to develop industries which are economic, productive, sustainable and environmentally responsible. There is probably no other industry or economic sector better geared to the needs of the countryside than forestry. But it is important to recognise that it is essentially production forests, i.e. plantations, with a positive economic and environmental impact, such as managed pine, eucalyptus or cork oak forests, that need to take a more active role in the life of the countryside. Growth in production forests should also benefit the development of other forestry sectors, with native species, geared essentially to conservation and leisure, thereby strengthening the national forestry sector as a whole, which is far from realising its full potential.

So the facts are very clear concerning the importance of woodlands to a more sustainable future for Portugal and for stemming the tide of migration from rural areas. What's the best thing about all this? The long and fantastic journey we have ahead of us. We need to let the forest grow and to encourage managed woodlands, rather than non-managed woodlands, which unfortunately still predominate in Portugal.

Nuno Santos Executive Director

2% Percentage of GDP represented by forest-based industries

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

WELCOME TO OUR HOME Setúbal, Aveiro, Vila Velha de Ródão, Figueira da Foz, Zambézia (Mozambique).

The Navigator Company from the inside. Alice Vieira, Catarina Pedroso, Sérgio

T

he Navigator Tour programme has long been opening the gates of the Company's industrial complexes to anyone interested to look inside, but this time the invitation was personal.

Alice Vieira knows better than anyone how to put down a story on paper, so we were

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eager for her to see the art of making that paper. And because making paper means planting trees, we started at our nurseries, on the Espirra Estate, and then moved on to the paper mill, where the raw material provided by nature is processed into immaculate white sheets, all of them natural and sustainable.

Sérgio Ribeiro is the entrepreneur behind an online marketplace for eco-products of various kinds, providing producers with a place to promote their sustainable products and ensuring consumers know where to buy them. Sérgio prefers not to see sustainability as something external, to show to others: sustainability

is what we are. At the Caniceira Estate he saw how forests are managed sustainably and biodiversity protected, and at the Vila Velha de Ródão plant we showed him how we make our tissue products, which are certified and environmentally responsible.

Catarina Pedroso has a brand of vegan shoes, that she

Five locations with new or established ventures, five guests invited to explore Ribeiro, Constança Arouca e Lourenço do Rosário: please step inside! creates with the smallest possible environmental impact.

This means she is constantly searching for innovative materials and new uses for sustainable materials, so a visit to our forestry and paper research institute fitted her like a glove.

At the Aveiro plant, the values of respect for the natural world, built into the way we

produce our pulp and paper, mirror those of her high-end footwear brand.

Constança Arouca uses paper at every stage of her work.

From drawing to engraving, as well as origami and kirigami. Having seen in Vietnam how paper is made by hand in the Far East, the Figueira da Foz mill was her first

encounter with industrial production. A researcher herself, she was pleasantly surprised by the Company's investment in research.

In Mozambique, Lourenço do Rosário toured Navigator's project in Zambézia province, from the nurseries to the plantations, on a visit that lasted two days. The strong ties that

the company is creating with local communities and the whole policy of social responsibility involved in the implementation of the project were the two take-home facts that most impressed this key influencer in Mozambican society.

Read about our guests experiences, and get inspired to visit us too.

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

A L I C E

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

V I E I RA

“I'VE FINALLY PLANTED A TREE” There's a saying that everyone should "plant a tree, have a child and write a book". With more than eighty published works, two children and four grandchildren, Alice Vieira's ticked off the final item on the list, on a trip to Navigator's nurseries.

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nd if I told you now that I don't use paper?", asked Alice Vieira, with her characteristic uninhibited laughter. It actually wouldn't matter at all, because the invitation to the writer to escape the stifling heat of Lisbon, and make the short trip to Espirra and the Setúbal mill, was intended precisely to allow her to discover something new about the world of forests, paper and The Navigator Company.

Joking apart, the fact of the matter is rather different. Alice Vieira not only uses paper, but she likes other people to use it too. Just as she likes to tell stories: “Not long ago I had a call from a teacher, asking if I could go to her school. I was going to agree when she told me that one of the things they were most proud about was that they didn't let books or notepads into the school. ‘So I won't go either,’ I told her. It saddens me to think that children no longer know how to write by hand."

It's true that, as a journalist who started when she was eighteen, Alice Vieira has always used a typewriter or a computer, but to read or proof her work, she needs to print it out.

"I love the feel of paper, and it makes it easier to think," she confided. But that's not the only use she has for paper. "My postman knocked on the door the other day to see if I was sick, because there was no mail for me...

Almost every week I write a dozen letters and postcards and get the same number back. I even have friends abroad who sometimes ask me to send them different papers. People now

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look at sheets of paper as something out of the ordinary, but they are still part of my life. I just didn't know how they were made," she confessed.

A diminutive figure, at less than five feet, the distinguished writer and journalist gazed at the jumbo rolls of paper, 5.6 metres wide and weighing 80 tons, spinning on one of the three machines at the Setúbal mill. They take an hour to make and, when they are transferred to the cutting machines, they are transformed into smaller reels, for processing into reams, further down the hall, or sent to the warehouse.

Alice Vieira follows the process, surprised at the automation and never losing sight of the reels as they proceed down the factory line, on automatic conveyors. She walked around the building where they are transformed into sheets of different sizes, from traditional A4 office paper to customised sizes for the printing industry. Many of them could end up in the hands of her readers.

And in ten or twelve years' time, someone might hold a sheet of paper which had, in its origin, the touch of the writer herself.

A tree called Alice The magic was earlier in the day. Exactly one hour and two cups of coffee (she drinks twenty a day, but assures us that she has no problem sleeping) before Alice Vieira arrived at the Setúbal Industrial Complex. Just forty kilometres away from the factories, on the Espirra Estate, home to Navigator's Aliança

In 2019, she celebrates forty years as a writer.

She started as a journalist at eighteen, and wrote her first book, Rosa, Minha Irmã Rosa, for and with her children. Best known for her books for children and young readers, she has also written novels, short stories, biographies and poetry.

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

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C a t a r in a

Pe d r o s o

“MY AMBITION IS TO CONQUER THE WORLD”

milLION plants produced each year at the Espirra nurseries.

It was under a tree, at the age of seven, in a field of cows, that Catarina Pedroso understood the importance of nature to her life. Her artistic talent, and her husband, provided the initial impetus for Ballūta, a sustainable venture producing luxury vegan footwear.

The Alice tree was planted after trimming the ends of the cutting and the two remaining leaves, to limit transpiration

nurseries, Alice Vieira had enjoyed a string of new experiences.

The first of these, "historic", was announced by the guest herself: "Look, Alice with a hat on her head!" The second was her incredulity when she inhaled the fragrance of Eucalyptus citriodora – one of six hundred species of eucalyptus, a number that surprised Alice Vieira. The leaves of this eucalyptus carry a heavy lemon scent, making it obviously a favourite of the cosmetics industry as well as giving it a very simple use, as a natural insect repellent.

“I never expected to find such a variety of flora,” Alice Vieira told us as she toured the estate. At its Espirra Estate, Navigator – which is Portugal's largest private sector forestry operator – does more than propagate top quality Eucalyptus globulus saplings (more than 8 million a year), used in the Company's forests. It also cultivates vineyards, pine and cork oak woods, strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo) and 130 species of aromatic plants and shrubs.

At this time of year, in August, in contrast to the silence of the greenhouses, the biofactory is buzzing with around a hundred workers who each day prepare 180 cuttings, ready for planting in September. Holding the secateurs in her right hand and a eucalyptus branch in her right, Alice followed the instructions: trim off the ends and all the leaves save two, for a cutting that can be planted and take root. Then trim the ends of the leaves, to limit transpiration and help the plant to thrive. "Now, sign this label for the cutting," suggested her guide, Carmen Correia, the production manager for non-forestry plants. "In September I hope to be able to send you a photograph of your baby with its roots," she promised. Which brings us to new experience number three: at the age of 76, Alice Vieira planted her first tree.

I In the shade house, where 2.4 million plants are taken to root, the irrigation system helps keep them cool

The paper machines at the Setúbal mill produce 72 thousand tons a month

t took me more than two years of research to find the sustainable, non-animal materials I use in Ballūta, as well as suppliers with sustainable production processes,” Catarina Pedroso told us. These are small manufacturing units, solar-powered factories, that avoid using solvents and give priority to renewable materials.

So, as the founder, CEO and creative director of this vegan footwear brand, she never imagined that a giant like The Navigator Company "could have the same concern for sustainability in all aspects of its business." She also never imagined that a visit to the company would point her towards alternative eco-friendly materials.

Nine kilometres from Aveiro, the Quinta de São Francisco is an estate dating back more than a century, and is home today to RAIZ, Navigator's research centre, where it works on solutions for sustainable development and a forest-based bioeconomy. Catarina was extremely interested to learn that the unit is investing 13 million euros in a project to develop alternative uses for cellulose fibres. And also that lignin from wood is used to make phenols and polymers and that the polyurethane foams made from lignin could even be a sustainable option for the soles of her Ballūta shoes.

The main difficulty she faces is in finding ecological materials that offer the same elasticity or strength as leather or plastics, as well as glues not tested on animals. And this led to another discovery: the succinic acid produced from biomass can be used for glues, as an alternative to fossil-based products.

At the moment she uses cork, beechwood, recycled plastic, materials with no solvents

DIDN'T KNOW THAT globulus is the Latin for bud, because of the bud-like fruit of this eucalyptus species, which is the best suited to producing superior quality paper, and to the climate of the Iberian peninsula.

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

or PVC, and she is looking into textiles made from apple and pineapple fibres (but the colour range is limited and the white is yellowish, falling short of the quality standards for Ballūta). She is also expecting to receive samples of new products, including one made 100% from seaweed.

This narrow range of options has forced this vegetarian (although she points out that she grew up in a family connected to bullfighting and cattle farming) to be more creative.

But she doesn't mind: "I love a challenge". So does Navigator. That is why it is constantly searching for more sustainable solutions, such as its current project to develop paper for packaging, to replace plastic, but with a biodegradable varnish.

In the world of footwear, whilst it is true that nickel-free eyelets can be three times more expensive, when the overarching concern is for sustainability, Catarina Pedroso believes that economic factors cannot be allowed to dictate decisions. This is why she doesn't want her shoes manufactured in China or third world countries. And it is also why the European Commission has approved state aid of 12 million euros for the construction of Navigator's new industrial complex in Cacia: to ensure the economic viability of a project worth 114 million euros, which has created more than 130 direct jobs in the region.

Success on the international market Touring the new tissue mill in Cacia, she is taken by surprise by the level of innovation and automation in the processes. "I'm used to factories where, even in the smallest, there are more than a hundred people working." The Ballūta team is still much smaller, with Catarina working full time and three others involved on a part time basis. Since 2016, when her husband persuaded her to set up her footwear venture, because she felt she had unrealised creative potential, the business has grown sustainably and organically, supported by interest from the international press, online funding, publicity from fashion bloggers and peer recognition: the company was selected for the Emerging Designers show at MICAM, the world's largest footwear show.

Although the sales of the six models for her first collection (summer 2018) were mostly in Portugal, this has already changed. Catarina Pedroso's dream has always been "huge: not just Portugal, the whole world," she tells us. The brand website, with online store, is available in English only, and a German version is likely to follow sooner than a Portuguese one. With her second collection, 90% of sales were abroad. Curiously, Navigator also exports more than 90% of its products to 130 countries. But whilst Navigator has already established itself as one of the world's top premium paper producers, Ballūta hopes to conquer the world in six to eight years.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

Founder, CEO and Creative Director of Ballūta. After graduating in painting from the Fine Arts Faculty, she worked as a graffiti artist, vocalist and in make-up. But when she decided to create a brand of vegan shoes she took a course in footwear design. The company's name, an archaic form of the Portuguese word for acorn (bolota), is a reminder of her family's rural routes.

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milLION euros: the budget for RAIZ' project to develop alternative materials from viscose and cellulose fibres.

DIDN'T KNOW THAT the arboretum at Quinta de São Francisco, home to RAIZ, has Europe's largest collection of eucalyptus, with around 100 species (including the oldest, which is 110 years old) and 400 other plant species, as well as 51 species of birds and mammals, such as foxes, squirrels and rabbits.

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

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S É R G I O R I B E I RO

“WHAT WE DO IMPACTS THE WHOLE PLANET”

hours of non-stop production of 15 gsm tissue paper, at a speed of 2,000 metres a minute, secured the world record for the Vila Velha de Rodão plant in January 2019.

Sérgio Ribeiro pointed to the August rain as evidence of the urgent need to tackle climate change. This is why he looks at everything through the lens of sustainability, along the entire value chain of each product. This time it was the turn of Planetier's CEO to make the trip from forest to paper.

The alder woods conservation area on the Caniceira estate offer a recreation area open to the public

W

e are all planetiers," says Sérgio Ribeiro. This sentiment gave its name to the online marketplace for sustainable products and services he co-founded and means that we all share the same world, that we have to preserve. It's also a small world. A friend of the venture's CEO works at The Navigator Company paper mill in Figueira da Foz, and one of his colleagues on the Planetiers team is a relation of one of the former owners of the plant in Vila Velha de Ródão, which Sérgio Ribeiro is about to visit and which he noticed a few months ago, when he was working on a tree planting campaign in Idanha-a-Nova.

He agreed to come back to learn at first hand about Navigator's sustainability policy, as "informed decision making" is what Planetiers seeks to offer consumers who are concerned about their impact on the Earth. And he accepted the invitation despite his heavy workload, which meant he had to take calls and reply to emails during the trip. His venture is currently preparing to expand on to the international market, and is organising an ambitious event, the Planetiers World Gathering – "the largest sustainable innovation event in the world", planned for April next year, in Lisbon. "The idea is to bring together startups and the most innovative thinking, with the most woke investors, sustainable cities and governments, people engaged with this message and the most inspiring speakers from around the world," he says with pride.

The same pride he feels when he explains that an important feature of the Planetiers project is that consumers can be confident that the products offered

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DIDN'T KNOW THAT Navigator creates protection zones for particular species on its properties, where no operations are carried out during the mating season, such as for the Bonelli eagle (endangered), which nests in eucalyptus trees.

The Afocelca brigades are part of the national forest defence system, tackling fires on the properties of the Navigator and Altri groups, as well as elsewhere

Different species coexist on Navigator's forestry estates, in a biodiversity patchwork that also creates natural fire breaks

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

C o n s ta n ç a

A r o u c a

“DRAWING AND WRITING ON PAPER ARE PART OF HOW I THINK” She does drawings and engravings and researches engravings. She also teaches origami and kirigami. Paper is central to how Constança Arouca works. Having seen how artisanal paper is made in the Far East, she visited Navigator for her first experience of industrial paper production.

I Sérgio Ribeiro saw for himself the characteristics of the tissue products manufactured at the Vila Velha de Rodão mill

In 2017, he co-founded Planetiers (www. planetiers.com), an online marketplace for sustainable products and services, which was one of the finalists in the Social Innovation Tournament organised by the European Investment Bank. With an MSc in Biological Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, he has worked on projects in the field of environmental education.

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on the platform have already been filtered to ensure high standards. Sérgio Ribeiro admits that defining sustainability is not easy, because there are different sides to the question: "This is something I think that Navigator does well. It integrates sustainability along the whole value chain, starting in the forest." Proof of this was only 150 kilometres away, at our first stop, in the Caniceira forestry project, covering 506 hectares, including 50 hectares of conservation land.

On arrival, in the August drizzle, which Sérgio Ribeiro cites as evidence of the urgency of climate concerns, the property appears to be protected against the fires that blazed in the Constança region, "and around São Pedro de Tomar, they came right up to our gates," recalled José Vasques, Navigator's coordinator for the Tagus Valley region. He speaks proudly of the protection strips and fire breaks on the Company's holdings, the varied patchwork of species that serves to stop fires, woodlands maintenance and the work of Afocelca, the professional forest fire fighting force (deployed by The Navigator Company and ALTRI) that works alongside the National Civil Protection Authority, with one of its units based on this estate.

The five-member brigade demonstrate their rapid response to alerts (they are airborne in seven minutes), equipment to the ready, including the 800 litre bucket used by the helicopter, one of the three aircraft used by the force in Portugal. “I've heard about Navigator's fire fighters,” said Sérgio Ribeiro,

as he greets the team and asks about their communications during operations.

S for Sérgio, sustainability and synergy By the end of the day, Sérgio Ribeiro told us: "More than the diversity of animals and species on the land, I was surprised by Navigator's relationship with the local community. Sometimes we forget about this important synergy." The CEO of Planetiers was talking about fire fighting, but also about how the estate is opened up to local shepherds, schools and the general public. He himself had witnessed the beauty of the alder woods that have been preserved around the stream running through the estate, a popular spot for walkers and picnickers.

The concern for preserving water resources is of course one shared by Sérgio Ribeiro, whose MA dissertation was on a project for improving effluents. This was why, when arriving at the tissue mill in Vila Velha de Ródão, he had a special interest in seeing the newly refurbished primary and secondary waste water plant, representing investment of more than half a million euros. The refurbished unit produces drinking water and dehydrated sludges which can be used as fertiliser. This is one of the outputs from the production of 60 000 tons of tissue paper, which leaves the lines in the form of napkins, kitchen roll, toilet paper and hand towels. These are all Ecolabel products that meet the strict requirements of countless certification programmes, as Sérgio Ribeiro observed from a display of documents on the wall. Professional habits die hard.

t's hard today to find blotting paper, which is more absorbent than other kinds," said Constança Arouca, as she explained her professional relationship with paper as an artist, engraver and researcher at the Museu do Oriente. She recalls the many varieties she found in the Far East, made from tree trunks. Mulberry trees in Japan, and the Dó tree in Vietnam. She spent a month and a half at the beginning of this year to the north of Hanoi, on a research grant from the Fundação Oriente, completing her study of Vietnamese engravings, prints and posters in the Kwok On collection.

It was a chance for her to observe the manufacture of Giay dó paper and the tradition burning of printed paper in homage to the local people's ancestors, during the celebrations of the Lunar New Year, known as Têt. In the manufacture of traditional Vietnamese paper, the whole family is involved in the process and everyone has their own task. They strip the bark from the tree, which grows to a height of 8 to 12 metres, place the bark in water with lime to bleach it, boil it in cauldrons, grind it down and then divide the powder and fibre to produce different types of paper. Bamboo curtains are used as moulds for each sheet, which are then dried on the walls and furniture, until there is no more space in the house.

On a visit to Navigator's paper mill in Figueira da Foz, "what really interests me is to compare it with what I saw in Vietnam. The fact is that the process has similarities, despite the vast industrial scale. On the human scale, when you stand next to one of those rolls of paper, it's weird and amazing," the artist admitted.

She was excited to visit the sampling laboratory and had a series of questions to ask about all the paper tests conducted during the production process, looking at colour, calibre, roughness, viscosity, grammage, thickness, load, permeability and strength. "Life takes us to places and

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

DIDN'T KNOW THAT Navigator has an Environmental Monitoring Board at each site, that meets every three months with community representatives, to share what is being done and listen to suggestions about how to do better.

I have to think that if I were to do research into the limits of paper as a material, I wouldn't mind at all," she confessed.

Having studied visual arts and the anthropology of visual cultures, she works as an engraver, with a number of individual and collective shows under her belt, and researches engravings at Museu do Oriente, where she also teaches the Japanese arts of folding and cutting paper.

Surprise at the openness to the community There were other surprises in store. Such as the way Navigator shares information with the community, including scientists, artists and the general public, in order to create a platform for communication with people, inviting them to see how the company operates. About the Company's efforts to protect the environment, Constança noted: "I was pleased to see that paper waste was reclaimed in the mill, and put back into the production process, and the investment in research, because the people who use the most have the greatest responsibility for thinking about conservation." She was also unaware of all the certification rules for planted forests, the space that must be left for other species as well as eucalyptus and the fact that certification complies with the rules in other countries to which the paper is exported. And that the globulus species used by Navigator is the most efficient and results in the best quality paper, as well as being perfectly suited to the country's climate, making Portugal the world's leading producer of this species. The Figueira mill was actually where the company's premium paper was first produced.

Production today is aimed at a number of niches, and a new HD offset paper is currently being developed, with visibly better results in printing.

“That's something that interests me,” the artist enthused, because she studies manual and industrial methods of printing. Offset is a “close relation of lithography.”

Paper is essential for her work, both for drawing and engraving, and for studying manual and industrial printing processes. “Drawing and writing on paper are part of how I think,” she explained. The connection may not be as lofty as that enjoyed by the Japanese, who regard traditional paper as having "god-like qualities", because of its beauty and purity, but Constança couldn't feel closer. She even teaches the Japanese crafts of folding and cutting paper, used to make ritual objects which are hung at temple doors, where they can sway in the wind and communicate with the Shinto gods. Patiently showing how it is done, Constança Arouca made valiant efforts to teach the people around her in the mill how to fold the traditional origami "water pump", and if the results were rather less than god-like, the clumsiness of her 'students' was perhaps to blame. But everyone was pleased to see that, in the right hands, Navigator's premium paper can also be used successfully for this Oriental art form.

8

metres is the width of a jumbo roll produced in Figueira da Foz, at a speed of 75 km/h, weighing 60 tons.

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

L o u r en ç o

d o

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

R o s á r i o

“THERE'S A STRONG CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PROJECT AND LOCAL PEOPLE” Lourenço do Rosário set off to visit the Portucel Moçambique venture in Zambézia province hoping to find out how the company was adapting to the country, in terms of both its forestry policy and the social reality of Mozambique. By the end, he felt that meeting the people and seeing the project in action had given him a "fresh perspective".

A

n influential figure in Mozambican society, concerned about the country's development and future, it was only natural for Lourenço do Rosário to be interested in the forestry venture, integrated with a paper pulp mill, that The Navigator Company has taken to Mozambique. "I was curious to see how a company like this would manage to establish itself in a country that essentially fells and exports timber, and what philosophies it would bring with it in its tree-planting policy," he told us. Because the Zambézia province project is at a more advanced stage, this was chosen for the visit. But the possibility of a follow-up visit to the Manica project was not excluded.

As we travelled further into rural Africa, Lourenço do Rosário confessed he was a confirmed city-dweller, despite his village roots. "My father was an agricultural foreman, but he later decided to work as an electrician, so we were 'transplanted' to the city. I have a great feeling for nature, forests and the countryside, but it's more intellectual rather than feeling at home there," he explained. But

20

no one would have guessed that, seeing him, just a short while later, completely at ease in the bush.

On his tour of the Luá forestry nurseries, seeing how plants are prepared before being sent out for planting, he confided his amazement at the sophisticated work and technological precision on view, but his real surprise was at the workers, the ones who "get their hands dirty". “The people working here are mostly families from local communities, and that's great from a social point of view,” he said.

The tour then took him to plantations of different ages, and he was once again struck by the relationship with local people. Lourenço do Rosário was impressed by "how they deal with the issue of neutralising land disputes with local people," by the way local people have not been displaced or rehoused, but instead integrated into the project. "I'm delighted to see this harmony between the project and local people, and how the project has integrated itself with local communities. As well as continuing to produce for themselves, people are also involved in Portucel's operations. This is in fact quite

With a PhD in African Literature from the University of Coimbra, he is currently Chancellor of the Universidade Politécnica de Moçambique. Alongside his literary interests, he is a researcher into the social and political history of Mozambique and an author with a vast academic output, with twelve published books. In Portugal, he has been honoured with the title of Grande Oficial da Ordem de Santiago da Espada.

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milLION trees planted in Mozambique since the project started.

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME Sharing knowledge and supporting projects and organisations, in the context of an inclusive relationship with communities, is built into The Navigator Company's DNA. In Mozambique, the pioneering nature of the venture, which has started as a forestry-based project, and the socioeconomic context mean that engagement with local communities is even more relevant.

THE PROJECT IN FIGURES

356,000 ha different from a number of other international projects in the country, many of which I am familiar with through FUNDE [the University Foundation for Education and Development, which he chairs]. It's praiseworthy, in every respect."

Influencing generations The trip also showed how infrastructures have been built throughout the project area, covering several districts. It took us two days to see it all. New roads and paths, old paths restored, boreholes for local people, Lourenço do Rosário took it all in, but again it was the people he got excited about. When we visited the offices, it was their enthusiasm that he noticed. "The country's situation is rather complicated, I'm well aware of it, so I'm sure that things aren't always easy and it must sometimes seem that doors are closed to them. But you can feel the enthusiasm, it's unusual and refreshing."

A fan of paper, and self-confessed "paper addict", Lourenço do Rosário had never given much thought to the industry that

supports this "lifestyle". "All I had was a number of general preconceptions about it," he explained. "But now, from what I've seen, I think the Portucel Moçambique needs to be understood better. Going to meet the people and seeing the land has given me an idea of what this project is actually about. It's given me a fresh perspective."

And his impressions include a vision for using the country's resources: "Social and economic impact is really important and has to be considered, but there are other questions too. At a time when we are constantly hearing that the country is being deforested, it's fundamental to have this project working in the opposite direction, because it can bring environmental dynamics that go well beyond eucalyptus and the provinces involved. It's a form of environmental education, for future generations.

Learning that we have to plant in order to fell will have a real impact on Mozambique's forestry policy, influencing the measures that the authorities may adopt in future.

That is hugely important."

DIDN'T KNOW THAT, even at this stage when the project is still consolidating its presence, more than five million dollars have been invested in the Social Development Programme.

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Total project area (in 46 scattered holdings)

6,500

Households supported so far

440,000 kg Improved seeds distributed

W

e're in a different country, with different legislation, different institutional arrangements, social structure and culture," said Paulo Silva, one of the executive directors of Portucel Moçambique. "Here, land belongs to the State and is in the possession of communities/families, and the land use model we have adopted, on a mosaic plan (combining our plantations with traditional land use), means people can stay where they have lived historically (without resettlements) and voluntarily allow the company to use part of the area in their possession."

Navigator and Portucel Moçambique are convinced that the project will only be sustainable by sharing value with local communities and other stakeholders. "We want everyone to see their lives improved because of the project," explained Paulo Silva.

In order to consolidate the results of the land use model adopted, a Social Development Programme (SDP) has been set up on the basis of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, with three main aims:

1 – Food security and diversity, involving training in conservation farming techniques, distribution of improved seeds, encouraging food crops, construction of barns and technical cooperation with Mozambique's Agrarian

Research Institute on introducing varieties adapted to each region.

2 – Opportunities for economic growth and development (increasing incomes) through support for measures to boost the local economy.

One of the projects involves introducing bee hives around eucalyptus plantations: in addition to training in bee-keeping, families are responsible for managing the hives, and are paid for each kilogram of honey produced. Another project in progress is the distribution of goatling: more than 220 families received three goatling each, for them to breed and then share the first two goatling bred, resulting already in more than 1,500 animals.

3 – Improvement in household living standards, working in different fields such as health, educational attainment, access roads, energy, etc. The initiatives have included distribution of around 2,500 solar lamps, construction or repair of more than 5,000 km of roads and rural paths, drilling of 20 boreholes and repairs to another twenty which were no longer operational, providing/restoring drinking water access for more than 20,000 people.

"The Social Development Programme plays an essential role in our project," said Paulo

Communication is an important part of engagement with communities, and there are regular meetings with them

“There are three key words in the company: Care, Share, Dare. Here in Mozambique, we need to do this more than elsewhere. We need to take more care, to share more and the potential for daring is also greater."

Paulo Silva

Silva, adding: “it's a long-term programme, implemented alongside installation of our forestry base, and include a significant communication element, which is necessary, both for communities and organisational structures to learn about the scope of what we are doing, and for us to assess how our investment is being truly transformational in the life of the communities in which we operate, and so that we can make any adjustments that may be needed along the way. And this is all a great challenge. The SDP is not being implemented in a vacuum. Everything is going on at the same time, it all has to fit harmoniously together. It's a central tool for the project as a whole to achieve its aims of development and economic sustainability. Because, even in a long term project, the future is just around the corner."

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

SOUVENIR PHOTOS The pride we feel in showing what we are able to do is mixed with the pleasure of welcoming five guests we admire. And because pictures speak louder than words, we will close with some souvenir photos of the visits.

Above, a jumbo roll at the Figueira da Foz mill, eight metres wide, in contrast to the human scale of Constança Arouca Right, the paper reel store

At the Setúbal mill, Alice Vieira was able to follow the whole process of making, cutting and packaging paper, on reels and in reams

The production lines at the Setúbal paper mill

Sérgio Ribeiro at the production line for dispenser hand towels, in the industrial converting sector of the Vila Velha de Rodão tissue mill

Catarina Pedroso talking to Alexandre Gaspar, from RAIZ, about innovative materials

In Cacia, Catarina Pedroso was able to feel the tissue paper manufactured and processed at the new complex that started up in late 2018

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All the cuttings planted at the Aliança Nurseries on the Espirra Estate spend 25 to 30 days in the shade houses, to take root with the help of high humidity

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR In Zambézia province, Lourenço do Rosário was surprised at how well local communities were integrated into the Portucel Moçambique venture

SOUVENIR PHOTOS

Head of nonforestry plant production at the Espirra Estate, Carmen Correia, introduced Alice Vieira to e. globulus and helped the writer to plant one

Afocelca operations coordinator, Pedro Ventura, showed Sérgio Ribeiro the different properties under their management, and the location of fire-fighting resources

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In the intermediate tissue reels store, in Vila Velha de Rodão, Sérgio Ribeiro saw the forklifts in operation and felt the weight of the paper

Using Navigator paper, instead of traditional Japanese paper, Constança Arouca teaches how to make an origami "water pump"

Catarina Pedroso toured the tissue converting building in Cacia, which turns out napkins, paper roll, toilet paper and hand towels In Mozambique, the tour took in plantations of different ages

Eucalyptus botryoides at the Quinta de São Francisco

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JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

n a vig a t o r

t o u r

OPEN DOORS Transparency is a long-established policy in The Navigator Company. Proud of how it operates, the Company is happy to open up its sites and processes to anyone who wants to see them.

G

ood forestry practices, environmental responsibility and sustainability are the values that underpin dayto-day activities in the forests managed

by Navigator and in its industrial complexes. But this is not always the message that gets out. Quick soundbites, taken out of context, are often a recipe for misunderstandings and preconceived ideas.

"The great advantage of transparency is the credibility it give us," said Paula Carloto, the Company's Institutional Relations Manager. "We are already all these things, but we want people to know it."

The Navigator Tour programme makes this all possible, opening the doors to all stakeholders interested in learning more not just about the paper production process, but also the workings of a company that prides itself on the leading position it enjoys in the economy and in society, developing and improving Portugal's forests and helping to improve the quality of life of the communities around its sites.

Growing interest In 2018, the company welcomed 2,902 Navigator Tour visitors. But by the end of this year, the number of visitors is set to

top five thousand, "a number that shows that communities are still eager to learn about us," stressed Paula Carloto.

Navigator has made a standing invitation to its employees and their families, schools, students, institutions and community groups who want to see at first hand its role in the world and get a clearer picture of the Company's commitment to preserving natural resources, which belong to us all. “We're ready and willing to welcome visitors and to listen to their feedback,” she concludes.

The process is now much simpler, with the launch of online enrolment at www.navigatortour.pt. There are planned tour dates, for which anyone can sign up, and also the possibility of requesting a date for a group or individually, if the dates offered don't suit. Each tour is subject to a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 50 visitors.

The opportunity to learn and see how the pulp, paper and tissue mills operate in Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Setúbal and Vila Velha de Ródão, or visit RAIZ, the research institute, and the Aliança Nurseries, in Espirra, is just a click away. Take the chance to see Navigator from the inside. We'll welcome you to our home.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF NAVIGATOR

There's still time The next tours are planned for 19 October, in Vila Velha de Ródão, and 26 October, in Aveiro. Find us online at www.navigatortour.pt and sign up for a tour.

If you have any questoin, just fill in the contact form on the website or send an email to navigatortour@ thenavigatorcompany.com.

By the end of 2019, more than five thousand visitors will have toured The Navigator Company's plants

By opening its doors to different stakeholders, Navigator shares its processes and values.

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COUNTRY LIFE

COUNTRY LIFE

Nélson Sérgio has a shop in Santiago do Cacém and owns a forest holding in the Monchique area. The distance and his lack of forestry expertise convinced him to rent his land to The Navigator Company, securing an income and careful management of his land. All so that his two sons will inherit their birthright in a pristine state.

RENTING: SHORTENING DISTANCES 30

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COUNTRY LIFE

N

élson Sérgio is 49 years old and the owner of a forest holding since 2011, but he has never done any work there himself. His professional life means he has no time to care for the woodlands, a problem compounded by the distance. It's more than 120 kilometres from where he lives (Santiago do Cacém) to his holding of around 47 hectares of eucalyptus woods in the Monchique area. The distance makes him no less proud of the legacy he received from his father, and that Nélson is keen to pass on to his sons, Martim and Afonso. "I don't work in the forest, but I've always wanted the property to be taken care of, with the proper management," he told us. "My father always loved the forest and today it's somewhere we can all go for a day out, as he's always pleased to see what he helped to build.

He worked hard for the family to own the woodlands and enjoy the benefits, and he wouldn't like to see the land go to rack and ruin."

Born in Torres Vedras, Nélson Sérgio was still a babe in arms when his parents moved to Aljezur, on the northern edge of the Algarve, in the early seventies. “My father and his brothers bought a 300 hectare estate between Monchique and Aljezur. It was uplands, with nothing there, but they bought machinery, planted trees and worked the land into terraces," he told us. The family then moved to Santiago do Cacém, near the Alentejo coast, where his father opened a clothes shop in the late eighties, which is still Nélson's today.

In his shop, in the centre of Santiago do Cacém, Nélson opens the map and points to a green area in the far southwest of mainland Portugal.

“It's around here,” he said. His forestry holding is in Alagoas - Barranco da Galé, half way

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COUNTRY LIFE

between Aljezur and Monchique, and just inside the municipal boundaries of Monchique.

When he was growing up, Nélson's relationship with the forest was always a distant one. After school he would go to the Santiago do Cacém football club, where he played as a midfielder. After hanging up his boots, he took up his place behind the counter, where you will still find him today. His father, Francisco, is now 76 years old, and the forest was his great love, something else he has handed down to his son. Eight years ago, Francisco advised him to buy a 20 hectare plot, adjacent to his own land.

And when, at the end of last year, the father decided to divide his property between his two children (Nélson and his sister), his holding grew to 47 hectares.

Long term partnership In 2011, Francisco Sérgio let his eucalyptus plantations to what was then Portucel, and his son followed his example.

"We really needed to be able to rely on someone to look after our forest holdings. We don't have Navigator's expertise, in preparing the land and choosing the right plants, and its management capacity for controlling undergrowth and increasing yields. Having a specialist company look after my land meant I had much less to worry about, not least in relation to fire risks," explained Nélson Sérgio.

The first lease with Portucel/ Navigator ended in 2018, but the partnership with Navigator went into a new phase when he inherited part of his father's land. "The previous contract provided an annual income, but this is for 24 years and we have now opted for a percentage of the value of the wood when it's felled.

It's a long term partnership,

It's 120 kilometres from Nélson Sérgio's home to his forestry holding

"Having a specialist company looking after my land means I have less to worry about."

covering two rotations," he told us. Navigator is responsible for investment and managing the forest, dealing with the logistics of the machinery needed, preparing the land, planting trees, fertilising, clearing undergrowth and paths. “My sister also let her 52 hectares to Navigator, as did some of our cousins,” added Nélson Sérgio, quietly hopeful that, when their time comes, his sons will also take care of the forest.

Long-standing trust Small forestry holdings account for much of the municipality of Monchique, where agriculture occupies only 13,300 hectares out of a total area of 395.8 km2. In addition to the pine and eucalyptus forests, there are areas of chestnut trees and cork oaks, but these are less important to the local economy. When Nélson Sérgio let his land to The Navigator Company, it was to put his land to better use. "I was keen on this partnership because I knew Navigator has forestry expertise and that means I get more income from my land. A welltended eucalyptus forest is a good source of income for families and for the country," the owner told us, pointing to the long relationship of trust established

between the two parties. “Navigator is a reliable company and they have always been serious and honest with us. So of course I was please to renew the lease."

Concerned about the fire risk, Nélson Sérgio trusts in the know-how of the company managing his eucalyptus plantation. "I'm much less worried thanks to the partnership, because if the land is properly tended, without scrub land around it and with the paths properly cleared, it will withstand fire much better," he explained. He has been dismayed by the fire damage in Portugal in recent years. "It's heartbreaking to see the forests destroyed, with all the hard work and sacrifice people have put into them."

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CONSERVATION AREAS

CONSERVATION AREAS

NAVIGATOR PROTECTS THREE THOUSAND YEAR OLD "TREASURES" The Castelos estate, in Redondo, is home to a Bronze Age settlement with a housing structure unique in the Iberian Peninsula. This is one of the archaeological discoveries made on this property belonging to The Navigator Company.

T

hree thousand years ago, high in the Serra de Ossa uplands, a settlement spread over fourteen hectares, with a population of around one thousand. These Bronze Age residents were warriors, but also farmers, who grew and milled cereals. The distinctive thing about this "village" is how the households were organised, living in small cabins in closed compounds, each home to an extended family. The old settlement has no

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known name, but it has always been called Castelo Velho, and is today part of the conservation area on one of Navigator's forestry estates.

Secrets that lay hidden for centuries are now being revealed as work proceeds in an archaeological dig led

by Rui Mataloto, of Redondo Municipal Council, under the CASTELO Archaeological Research Project. “This is an international field of work and started with research

35

CONSERVATION AREAS

project into Castelo Velho that I started with two colleagues – one from the US and another a Canadian of Portuguese descent,” explained Rui Mataloto. After contacting Navigator and prospecting the site, the first dig took place in summer 2018, followed by another this year, in August, with logistical support from the local authority.

Both digs resulted in several finds of ceramics and mill stones, but, for Rui Mataloto, it's the way the dwellings are organised that is most intriguing. "There appears to be group of small huts in a family area, surrounded by an enclosure, and this is a layout previously unknown anywhere in the southern part of the peninsula. In other words, we may be starting to learn about new ways in which dwellings and families themselves were structured in the Bronze Age," explained the archaeologist, who was surprised by the state of conservation of some of the structures.

Erika Sakaguchi, 20 years old and a student of Classical Civilisation at the University of Toronto, took part in the two digs and not averse to the idea of returning for a third. “This dig is particularly interesting.

It was great to be in on a new dig, where I could get down to work and receive training,” she tells us. “This year, we're finding a lot of ceramics and managing to do more: more drawings, elevations and excavations. There's lots more laboratory work. We spent three

CONSERVATION AREAS

weeks here, which is really exciting," she beamed.

Protecting culture The 14 hectares corresponding to the ancient settlement are today considered a conservation area within Navigator's eucalyptus plantation. “We learned of the castro some years ago, and this has become a protection area. We're aware that any further use of machinery on this area could have a significant impact on the remains.

So we're keeping it as it is, and we're delighted to have this relationship with Rui Mataloto and to let him conduct the digs," explained José Vasques, Navigator's Tagus Valley regional coordinator, who highlighted the importance of maintaining contact with the community.

"The hills are criss-crossed by footpaths which are mapped and which people use at the weekend for hikes and cycle rides. As for Castelo Velho, it's great to know that one of our properties is home to these remains, which are interesting and have things which might be unique in the Iberian Peninsula", he told us.

Considering the size of the ancient settlement, further discoveries, as or more exciting than those so far, are to be expected. As far as Rui Mataloto, Redondo municipal council and The Navigator Company are concerned, Castelo Velho will continue, year after year, to reveal its secrets.

The archaeologist Rui Mataloto, from Redondo Municipal Council, and José Vasques, of Navigator

The 14 hectares of archaeological remains on Navigator's property are classified as a conservation area.

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Erika Sakaguchi, a student of Classical Civilisation at the University of Toronto, worked on the site last year, and enjoyed the experience so much that she came back in 2019

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SAFETY

SAFETY MADE TO MEASURE The need to guard against specific risks in pulp and paper mills has led to a new safety training course for external service providers. Since the start of this year, the Paper Industry Safety Card has been compulsory, and training has been stepped up.

SAFETY

T

he impetus came from CELPA, the paper industry association, as a way of "ensuring the quality of service providers in this area" and of "obtaining synergies from health and safety training organised on a concerted basis."

In order to ensure that safety procedures are better disseminated and more widely observed, the Paper Industry Safety Card (PISC) is issued to individual workers, and not to their employers.

This training was certified in 2017 by DGERT (DirectorateGeneral of Employment and Industrial Relations) and, in early 2019, CELPA and its members decide that all workers must have the PISC, as explained by Ana Fernandes, who coordinates this project at CELPA: “Once the training was certified, and with work proceeding on this since 2012, it was time to make it compulsory.”

PISC is a programme of training in health and safety at work (HSW), aimed at all external workers in the companies making up CELPA. "These are workers who may be involved on an individual basis, or as employees of contractors, in jobs in the pulp and paper industry," explained Ana Fernandes.

Specific training CELPA members are required to provide this training to their service providers, free of charge. After this, for a period of five years, the PISC training is recognised by all CELPA companies, irrespective of the site or plant where the worker received the training. The card expires after five years, and workers then have to be revalidated, taking a shorter version of the training (eight hours) in order to renew their PISC, after successfully completing a final assessment test.

Pulp and paper mills pose specific risks, and so require specific safety rules

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Rita Teotónio, Safety Coordinator at The Navigator Company, told us that “in 2018, all service providers received a formal letter, telling them that the scheme was compulsory” and flyers on the subject were handed out at the factory gates. "Now that the card has been compulsory since the start of the year, we have got back into action in recent months, with lots of training courses," she explained.

Paula Lima, also a safety officer in the Company, was full of praise for the training: “The service providers learn about the processes and the associated risks, and also the best ways to prevent risks in the pulp and paper industry.”

“The real advantage of this training is that it is industry-specific. No can explain all the procedures better than the technicians in the factories themselves. The training plan was devised by CELPA and is the same for everyone, but the technician on the ground can focus on one question or another, adjusting it to the specific circumstances," said Ana Fernandes. Confirmation of the usefulness of the PISC training has also come from elsewhere, in the form of interest from associations representing other industrial sector, wanting to learn more about the model. The Working Conditions Authority (ACT) has also singled out the scheme as an example of good practice, publicising the initiative on its website.

The specific and pioneering features of the pulp and paper industry applied to safety, ensuring important HSW expertise in an industrial setting, not just for the companies' own employees, but for all those involved in operations tasks on a daily basis, promoting zero tolerance of hazards.

Since the start of the year, workers can only provide services in the facilities of CELPA members if they present the Paper Industry Safety Card

PISC training programme • Pulp and paper manufacturing processes.

• Process areas: hazards, risks, preventive measures, and most relevant factors.

• Jobs and activities: associated risks and preventive measures.

• Protection measures: signage, collective protection, and personal protection.

• Machinery and equipment (safety issues).

• Specific risks: electricity, contaminants in breathable air, confined spaces, work at height, work at high pressure.

• Explosions, fires, hazardous substances, and emergency situations.

• Organisational issues: cleanliness in the workplace, waste collection, alcohol controls, behavioural issues, and problem solving.

• Examples of unsafe situations.

Navigator's external service providers also need to know the rules.

For everyone's safety

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NEWSPAPER

NEWSPAPER

RAIZ launches e-globulus platform to help eucalyptus forestry ventures RAIZ, Navigator's forestry and pulp research unit, has launched e-globulus project (www.e-globulus.pt), a free and easy-to use online resource to help forestry ventures and responsible eucalyptus management, on the grounds that “a well-tended forest provides higher yields”. “The platform has been designed to be simple and intuitive, and to help companies, forestry producers' organisations and landowners/ forestry officers by providing technical and scientific information on eucalyptus cultivation, indicating forestry practices suited to particular circumstances, so that people can manage their woodlands

Good forestry practices at Arouca Harvest Fair

responsibly,” explained Carlos Pascoal Neto, General Manager of RAIZ. The online platform allows users, in just three steps, to create a forest management plan tailored to their particular property.

The first step is to add a property, by demarcating it directly on Google Maps or by uploading a shapefile. Then users are asked to provide details of current occupation, relief, soil characteristics and other information. Lastly, they are asked what forestry operation they want to carry out on the property in each development phase of the eucalyptus stand (installation, maintenance or coppicing).

At www.e-globulus.pt, users can tailor their forestry management plan to the features of their property, helping to improve the quality of eucalyptus farming

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Marine litter discussed in Setúbal

For the second year running, The Navigator Company took part in the Harvest Fair, held in Arouca in late September. With its campaign slogan "Give more value to your land", the Company highlighted its role as the driving force in the Portuguese forestry sector, raising the awareness of forest smallholders of the importance of managing their holdings sustainably. At a joint stand with the Entre Douro e Vouga Forestry Association, the Company's forestry officers told visitors about good forestry practices, certification and yields. The Aliança Nurseries and the Espirra Estate winery added to Navigator's presence at the Harvest Fair.

The Portuguese Marine Litter Association (APLM), in partnership with MARE (Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre), the Foundation for Science and Technology and Setúbal Municipal Council, organised the 2nd Portuguese Conference on Marine Litter and Microplastics, at the Casa da Baía, in Setúbal. The solutions for plastics and reducing waste in the sea were the main focus of the conference, which lasted three days and included a research workshop on the distribution and effects of microplastics, and reflections on plastic recycling in the circular economy.

A monitoring and cleaning session on Albarquel beach was also part of the event, marking National Clean Beach Day (21 September). The findings were then added to the data base on marine waste in Europe, available on the website of Marine Litter Watch, organised by the European Environment Agency.

Navigator was one of the partners at this conference marking the 2019 Week of the Sea, helping to distribute materials for the event.

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NEWSPAPER

NEWSPAPER

Navigator's area at FigueiraSea

Charity grape harvest supported by Navigator

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Navigator supported the "2019 Grape Harvest" event organised by the Higher Institute of Agronomy, on its land in the the Tapada da Ajuda, until recently home to the only vineyard in the city of Lisbon.

Planted as an aid to its teaching activities and research into eco-products, the Higher Institute of Agronomy's vineyard hosts a charity event each year at which the grapes are harvested and then donated to local welfare organisations.

For the past eight years, the grape harvest in the Tapada da Ajuda has been open to volunteers eager to enjoy the experience. The grapes are not all harvested in one go, but instead days are set depending on the ripening of the different varieties grown, analysed by the specialists at the Institute.

During August, volunteers harvested grapes of several varieties – Moscatel Galego, Viosinho, Encruzado and Alvarinho – and Navigator got involved, providing boxes for transporting fruit for donations, branded as part of its #MyPlanet programme promoting healthy lifestyles.

Sustainability in focus at FigueiraSea Centred on the Sea and Sustainability, FigueiraSea is the Sustainable Expo Alliance, organised by the Figueira da Foz Commercial and Industrial Association, this year involving The Navigator Company. This was another opportunity for the Company to show people the contribution it makes to economic development in the region, and sharing its work, experience and reputation in the field of sustainability. As part of the event, the Company organised a special Navigator Tour, opening its factory gates to the community to allow people to see where the world's best-selling premium office paper is made: at The Navigator Company's Figueira da Foz Industrial Complex, regarded as one of Europe's largest and most efficient industrial units.

Monchique revives traditions with medronho harvest In another of Navigator's social responsibility initiatives, the Company has supported the "Reviving Traditions" project organised by Monchique Municipal Council and the local Santa Casa da Misericórdia, bringing the generations together for the medronho (arbutus, or fruit of the strawberry tree) harvest. For the past two years, this project has brought together dozens of local people to revive the tradition of harvesting the arbutus fruit from the forest. The fruit is then fermented

and distilled into aguardente de medronho, a traditional fruit brandy.

The first arguardente made from the 2017 and 2018 harvests (more than 270 kg) at the Águas Alves estate, in Monchique, one of The Navigator Company's forest holdings, was presented to the community on 21 September, as part of celebrations at the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Monchique.

This popular initiative will continue this year, with a further medronho harvest planned on the Águas Alves estate in October/November.

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NEWSPAPER

Cacia is an “eco-parish” The European Blue Flag Association has named the civil parish of Cacia as one of its “Eco-Parishes XXI 2019”, acknowledging its consistent commitment to sustainability.

We spoke to Nélson Santos, Chairman of Cacia Civil Parish Council, who told us: "The Council is enormously proud to be considered an Eco Parish, thanks to an attempt to turn around one of the most heavily industrialised parishes in the country, into an ecological holiday destination, closer to its people."

Heritage conservation in Mozambique

Mozambican President plays "Give the Forest a Hand" Portucel Moçambique took part in the Biodiversity Exhibition organised by Biofund (Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation) in Chimoio, Manica province. With the slogan "Conservation Culture and Sustainable Development", this exhibition ran alongside the 14th National Festival of School

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Sports, and Portucel Moçambique took this as a cue to present its Give the Forest a Hand games.

This was a huge success with the visiting school children, and Give the Forest a Hand received the honour of welcoming a very special guest, the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, who was unable to resist joining the fun.

The “Mussolo” tree is regarded as sacred by the Jorge community in Curuane, district of Ile, in Zambézia province. It is inhabited by the spirits of their ancestors, and their traditional ceremonies are conducted under its shade. In keeping with its policy of community engagement and conservation of areas of ecological, socio-economic and cultural value, Portucel Moçambique has demarcated and protected areas with this tree inside its plantations. In addition, before any of its project operations are carried out in this community, the company performs a traditional ceremony, coordinated by local leaders, sticking faithfully to local cultural norms.

Espirra Estate wines add more medals to their collection Herdade de Espirra Reserva 2015 and Pavão de Espirra Tinto 2013, two wines produced at The Navigator Company's Espirra Estate were recently awarded gold medals at the VinDuero-VinDouro Awards, regarded as the largest international wine competition in Spain and Portugal.

In 2019 , Herdade de Espirra Reserva and Pavão de Espirra have so far amassed four and three gold medals respectively, out of a total of 17 awards won by the estate's wines.

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AROUCA

Nature in its pure state

The urgent need for transparency B Y

W

A

rouca is in my blood, I was born and grew up here, I came back here after a spell in Coimbra for my higher education, and this is where I live. It's a large municipality with a considerable area of forest, which is something that speaks straight to my heart. The river beaches at Areinho or Vau, where you can dip your toes in the River Paiva with rolling green scenery all around, are the perfect setting for an idyllic family picnic or a lazy afternoon with a book in the shade of a tree.

The riverside walkways – the Passadiços do Paiva – are a natural paradise. Stretching over eight kilometres of the left bank of the river, among untouched natural beauty, they offer the chance to observe the local biodiversity. The whole municipality of Arouca is classified as a Unesco World Geopark, with the green woodlands and the waters of the Paiva guarding no less than 41 sites

of geological interest. Everywhere in the Geopark there are archaeological and geological features that tell thousands of years of history.

One of the essential sights to see is the monastery. Built in the tenth century, this was for many centuries the centre around which the people of Arouca lived, worked and prayed.

The monastery was closed down in the nineteenth century, but its valuable contents are still to be seen, in the Museum of Religious Art. Still on a religious note, you can also visit the Hill and Chapel of Nossa Senhoa da Mó.

Returning to the natural world, the Serra da Freita is an upland region well worth a visit. Sometimes called the "enchanted hills", because of the sense of a lost paradise and the magic of the green mantle stretched out above Arouca. This is where you can see the unique Pedras Parideiras, or reproducing stones. As a result of erosion, nodules are released and

Minas de Rio de Frades The ruins of the Rio de Frades mines and mine works are divided between three main areas, which are best visited on foot.

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accumulate on the ground, each leaving a cavity in the granite: this is the "stone that gives birth to stone".

You will also find the Frecha da Mizarela, the highest and most spectacular waterfall in mainland Portugal.

Arouca is also a great place for hiking, BTT trails and adventure sports.

And for crafts, folklore and traditions. The distinctive flavour of the local beef. The traditional pastries and sweets: barrigas de freira, pão de ló, castanhas and morcelas doces.

And on the subject of food, I can recommend a meal at Décio, in Alvarenga, to feast on a massive Arouquesa steak, fried and served in a mouth-watering sauce. And for dessert, try the Casa de Doces Conventuais, in Arouca, but I would suggest an alternative to the traditional convent-style sweets: try the Bola de São Bernardo, and you won't regret it.

Actually, no one ever regrets visiting Arouca. What are you waiting for? Come and see!

Biodiversidade

The hills, valleys, woods and rivers around Arouca are fabulous habitats, home to species that live free and can be seen by visitors.

ANA DUARTE

J o ã o

e know today that future depends on us being able to make the transition to sustainable development, in other words, a system that values the environment and people. This transition – which will have to be quick! – will depend on our ability to combine three key dimensions: vision, rules and control, which is matter for policy and the State; scientific and technological progress, which is a task for centres of learning; and sustainable systems of production and consumption, which is up to companies and consumers, respectively. Without wanting to limit our contribution as citizens or human beings to our consumer options, the fact is that, of these three key dimensions, perhaps the most crucial is our role as consumers.

Most people try to do the right thing.

Only a few people get up in the morning intent on being worse. In other words, if they have the chance to make the right decisions or choose the best options, I'm sure that most people will do this. When making consumer choices, in comparable circumstances, when price, quality and function are all the same, I have no doubt that the options that offer value for people and the environment will be preferred over others.

But there is one crucial point, which is the information provided to consumers (which needs to be as comprehensive as possible), concerning the impacts of each product or service along the value chain, which

W eng o r o vi u s can be positive or negative, for the environment or for society. Price and the technical and function characteristics of goods – which is the information provided today – is not enough for consumers to make intelligent decisions.

It is true that in certain types of products, more information is already provided, such as ingredients, calories, energy efficiency or materials and country of manufacture, and there are products and companies that use environmental or social certification labels. But it is possible to go much further in terms of the information provided to consumers. We have a long way to go before value chains are transparent.

Let's look at the example of a cotton teeshirt. Along its entire value chain, an average single cotton tee-shirt involves consuming 2,700 litres of water (equivalent to the average consumption of one person in three years) and making a journey of 14 thousand kilometres (with an enormous impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions) in which it passes through a hundred pairs of hands. It would be important for the consumer to be told about the environmental and social footprint of each tee-shirt, for them to be able to choose products with a smaller environmental and social footprint, or preferably those with a positive impact, i.e. products that not only do not destroy environmental and social value, but which actually create it.

It is true that the price of goods should

M ene s e s also reflect their real cost, in other words, the natural and social capital they appropriate (free of charge or for a pittance) over the course of their value chains. But the first step should be to make value chains transparent to the end consumer.

The good news is that the technology needed for this has started to be available. For example, the startup Bext360 is already doing this in the textile and food industries using blockchain, RFID and other technological solutions.

In addition to information about the environmental and social footprints of products, these technological solutions have a huge storytelling potential, able to humanise the value chains. For example, when we have a coffee or eat a chocolate, it will be possible to know the precise origin of the coffee grains, the percentage that the farmer or any intermediary along the value chain received of the final sale price, as well as all the information that they want to share - even, for instance, the colour of the sky on the day the coffee was harvested.

The technology behind the genesis of Industry 4.0 – from artificial intelligence to the internet of things, as well as blockchain – opens up a vast range of possibilities in terms of sustainable development. So let there be courage and good decisions, by politicians, applied research, by centres of learning, and investment by companies. Consumers will then certainly make the right choices.

Forestry Division, Projects Sector Joined Navigator in 2016

Artesanato

Arouca has a strong sense of place, reflected in the variety of arts and crafts, such as linen, embroidery, done by hand and machine, slate, basketwork and wooden miniatures.

João Wengorovius Meneses Secretary-General, BCSD Portugal

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FORESTS

IN DEFENCE OF OUR CLIMATE Climate change is affecting our everyday lives all over the world, as extreme weather phenomena become more frequent and dramatic. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouses gases, and above all carbon dioxide (CO2), are recognised as the direct and clearest cause of global warming: more than 3 degrees Celsius is the increase projected up to the end of this century, requiring all mankind to take urgent action. In the challenge to achieve sustainability, we have a natural ally that we often underestimate: the forests. In the last quarter-century, photosynthesis by forests assimilated the equivalent of between 20% and 30% of total annual manmade emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is now a priority to plant more forests and increase yields in existing woodlands, with sustainable forest management.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS IS VITAL FOR LIFE Photosynthesis is the key process for the life of trees and also for mitigating climate change: in order to live and grow, trees produce their own nourishment using water and solar energy, as well as carbon dioxide (CO2), which they absorb from the atmosphere. This process produces oxygen – in other words, photosynthesis sequesters carbon and releases oxygen (O2). Considering the capacity of a eucalyptus tree to produce oxygen, twenty of these trees are enough to release the oxygen consumed by an adult during a year.

Each year, forests worldwide sequester 4.3 billion tons of carbon (around 40% of fossil emissions and deforestation), through photosynthesis, making them nature’s principal carbon CO2 sink, capable of reducing the proportion of this gas in the atmosphere. In Portugal, forests remove around 8 million tons (approximately 10% of annual CO2 emissions). Forests cultivated for the paper industry account for the capture of more than 4 million tons of carbon a year.

The carbon sequestered by forests is stored mostly in the form of wood and wood-based products, such as paper, in process that continues over time through recycling. It is estimated that one ton of paper retains the equivalent of 1.3 tons of CO2.

Content published in National Geographic (Portugal) magazine.

Sources: RNC–2050. Roteiro para a neutralidade carbónica – Caminho de futuro, dez. 2018. |João Santos Pereira (2014).

O futuro da floresta em Portugal. Ensaios da Fundação. FFMS | Natural Capital Coalition (2018). Natural Capital Protocol – Forest Products Sector Guide. | WBCSD (2015). Low carbon technology partnerships initiative: Forests and forest products as carbon sinks. | Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC (AR5)