More than 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been lost to logging since 1970. A growing local industry with high energy needs is exacerbating the situation. The project uses rice husks to provide heat for a booming ceramic tile firing plant and serves as an example to other plants in the area.

Despite reductions in the rate of deforestation in the last ten years, at the current rate the Amazon Rainforest will shrink by 40% by 2030. Between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometres of forest, an area larger than that of Greece.

By the end of the 1980s, the destruction of Brazil’s forests had become a serious global issue. Their destruction means not just a loss of biodiversity and ecological disruption but the burning of forests also released large amounts of carbon dioxide ((CO₂)).

The boom in Brazil’s economy triggers an even larger demand for firewood. A new energy source is urgently needed to save Amazon rainforests. At the São Judas Tadeu ceramic tile plant, the alternative energy source is rice husks.

The state of Tocantis, where São Judas Tadeu Ceramic is located, is the sixth largest producer of rice in Brazil and subsequently rice husks. When farmers harvest one ton of rice, 200 kilograms of rice husks remain to decay in open dump sites, leading to considerable methane emissions. The fuel switch at the São Judas Tadeu Ceramic Tile plant not only reduces the rate of deforestation in the area, but also prevents potent greenhouse methane gas from being emitted into the atmosphere.

This project acts as a role model for the ceramic industry in the area, encourages the transfer of sustainable technologies, creates job opportunities and contributes towards the conservation of the Amazon rain forest.