Environmental Reserve Credits

Environmental Reserve Credits (CRAs) are certificates that represent a certain area of protected native vegetation that can be used to compensate for a deficit of Legal Reserve obligation in another property. CRAs can also be used as collateral in payment for environmental services initiatives.

The Forest Code allows farmers with Legal Reserve deficit to comply with this obligation by acquiring Environmental Reserve Credits (CRAs - Cotas de Reserva Ambiental). Since the publication of the Forest Code, BVRio participates in the process of regulating the law at the federal level and in several states. And in parallel, BVRio has promoted the use of this mechanism among rural producers through its BVRio Circuit for Environmental Compliance.

BVRio Environmental Exchange operates a negotiations platform of Environmental Reserve Credits (CRAs) to give greater efficiency and liquidity to this market. Click here to access the CRA platform.

 

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Creating CRAs

Environmental Reserve Quotas (CRAs) can be created in areas of:

• Forest easement
• Private Reserve of Natural Heritage (RPPN)
• Legal reserve instituted voluntarily on vegetation that exceeds the percentages established by the law
• Conservation Unit in a public domain that has not yet been expropriated

CRAs can be created in areas with existing forests or vegetation in recovery process (unless regeneration or recomposition of the area is unlikely or infeasible).

One of the requirements for the creation of CRAs is that rural properties have made their Cadastro Ambiental Rural (CAR) . BVRio provides an manual on the process of creating CRAs, including the CAR process, in the BVRio Platform.

 

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Using CRAs

CRAs can be used to compensate for the absence of Legal Reserve, provided that certain legal conditions regarding the date of loss of forest cover and the equivalence between the ecological characteristics of the area represented by the CRA and the area to be compensated are met. In general, CRAs can be used to compensate rural properties in the same biome and state.

 

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Negotiating CRAs

BVRio allows trading CRAs on its trading platform (BVRio Plataform). Currently, this market has more than 3000 participants, and 3 million ha of rural properties offering Environmental Reserve Quotas. However, as there are still no CRAs issued in sufficient volumes to enable a ready market (spot market), BVRio has created a market for contracts to develop these quotas for delivery in the future - the CRAF market.

 

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The CRAF Market

The CRAFs - Contracts for the Development and Sale of Environmental Reserve Quotas for Future Delivery establish obligations between those who have Legal Reserve surplus (sellers) and those who wish to purchase CRAs for the requirements of the Forest Code. Through the CRAF, the Seller undertakes to create the CRAs and deliver them to the Buyer upon payment, to be made upon delivery of the CRAs, at a price previously agreed between the parties.

Standard contracts are used to establish the general terms and conditions of the transaction. The use of standardized contracts gives liquidity and facilitates its secondary market. However, the parties can define some variables, such as price (R$/ha), lot size (in hectares), and contract duration (in years).

Access BVRio Plataform now and engage this market!