Page 27 - 2019 Sustainability Report

The Chawar Project: Developing New Technology to Improve Industrial Project Design
A new tool, developed in partnership with the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, allows the company to improve its decision-making about the design and location of new exploration and development projects to minimize their environmental impacts.
Deforestation is one of Colombia’s most pressing
issues, particularly in the Putumayo region, where the Amazon rainforest connects to the Andes mountain range, resulting in one of the most biodiverse and sensitive areas in the world, home to tens of thousands of species of flora and fauna. This area is also inhabited by Indigenous, Afro-Colombian and other culturally sensitive groups.
The Chawar decision support system incorporates and overlays a wide range of data sets including biodiversity, ecosystem services, and social and cultural information. Starting in 2020, this system will provide a basis for real-time analysis and interpretation of how these factors interact now and in the future with proposed project design. It will also show how compensation for the company’s voluntary environmental and social investments can be structured to have the greatest impact on specific areas of interest as well as the broader region.
Reforestation Initiative Aligns with National Economic Development Priorities
An additional investment of over COP $8 billion will align GTE’s NaturAmazonas program (page 28) with the Colombian government’s objective to establish a cacao industry in the region by integrating sustainable cultivation practices with the reforestation project. This will provide farmers the ability to produce income generating crops while simultaneously protecting and preserving the forest.
1,000 HECTARES
Expected area of cacao cultivation
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