LVMH – a partner of the UNESCO MAB (Man and the Biosphere) programme, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – has launched an initiative to combat deforestation in the Amazon. The initiative, being taken in partnership with the UNESCO MAB programme, is part of the group’s new biodiversity strategy, launched at a forum organised by UNESCO.
The strategy is one of the pillars of the new LIFE 360 programme (LVMH Initiatives For the Environment), and aims to have a positive net contribution to biodiversity by limiting the activity’s impact on ecosystems, by helping to rehabilitate 5 million hectares of habitat for flora and fauna by 2030, in particular thanks to regenerative agriculture.LVMH – a partner of the UNESCO MAB (Man and the Biosphere) programme, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – has launched an initiative to combat deforestation in the Amazon. The initiative, being taken in partnership with the UNESCO MAB programme, is part of the group's new biodiversity strategy, launched at a forum organised by UNESCO.#
LVMH and UNESCO are targeting the factors of deforestation in the Amazon, with a budget of five million euros over five years. The programme aims to address the origins of deforestation and water pollution in the Amazon Basin by combining eight biosphere reserves in Bolivia (Pilón-Lajas, Beni), Ecuador (Yasuní, Sumaco, Podocarpus-El Condor), Brazil (Central Amazon) and Peru (Manu, Oaxapampa-Ashaninka-Yanesha).
In collaboration with local actors, the project will focus on reforestation and rehabilitation of degraded lands, and creation of sustainable employment and alternative sources of income. The project aims to provide concrete solutions that draw on the best of both scientific knowledge and local and native know-how. In the short term, this will result in creation of a local radio system dedicated to the prevention of forest fires based on existing infrastructures. In the long term, it will enable the identification of good practices and the establishment of sustainable economic activities in areas of severe deforestation.
The protection of nature’s ecosystems has been a focus for LVMH, whose activity is significantly reliant on natural raw materials (flowers, grapes, cotton, leather, stones, etc). A priority of the group’s long-term vision is the preservation of nature, whose riches are central to the exceptional character of the products created by its maisons. In the face of an unprecedented decline in biodiversity across the globe, LVMH is taking action and making the protection and regeneration of biodiversity a key pillar of its LIFE 360 environmental strategy.
The new objectives of this strategy were unveiled by Antoine Arnault during a round-table discussion with Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.
“Luxury is at the intersection of nature and creativity: we need nature in order to craft our high-quality products, and nature must be renewed and safeguarded. As the world leader in luxury, LVMH has committed to making the protection of biodiversity an absolute priority, and to being an exemplary actor of change – audacious, creative and demanding in building a more sustainable future. The ambitious goals we continue to set ourselves for reducing our environmental footprint are regarded as creative opportunities far more than fresh limitations. The `ACT for biodiversity’ partnership with UNESCO is a key pillar of our strategy, enabling us to challenge the norms, to have a positive and lasting impact beyond our supply chain, and to demonstrate that it is possible to reconcile economic development and protection of nature,” says Antoine Arnault, LVMH Image and Environment.
“For half a century, UNESCO has been a pioneer in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The UNESCO world network of biosphere reserves already numbers more than 700 sites of experimentation and sustainable solutions. By itself, this network already represents more than 5 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Marking the 50th anniversary of this programme, our partnership with the LVMH Group is a concrete way of bringing this accumulated experience to fruition,” says Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO.
The LVMH Group has structured its biodiversity strategy around four objectives -establishing a clear and precise measurement of biodiversity impact; avoiding and reducing impact on ecosystems; promoting animal welfare; and regenerating ecosystems.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)
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