Panel SA: Natura will encourage signatures for a bill to protect the Amazon

For the first time in Natura’s history, the company decided to help collect signatures for a popular initiative bill in defense of the Amazon.

The company will encourage consumers, employees and the dealer network to join the effort for the bill called Amazônia de Pé.

They will all be encouraged by Natura to seek signatures, including in the brand’s stores and at its events.

The text provides for the allocation of 57 million hectares of public forests in the region for the survival of the biome and the security of indigenous peoples, riverine peoples, quilombolas, small extractive and agrarian reform producers.

The movement, which is led by the NGO Nossas with scientists, experts and local leaders, intends to send it to Congress in 2023, after gathering 1.5 million physical signatures in five states.

The measure, according to Natura, is in line with its more than 20 years of work in the Amazon. The company says its business model in partnership with communities contributes to conserving 2 million hectares of forest and wants to expand to 3 million hectares by 2030.

“It’s the beginning of a process that we’re going to mobilize throughout the year. We’re going to invite people to physically sign it. We’ve already supported other bills related to sustainability, and this is the first time the company has endorsed a bill of initiative popular”, says Denise Hills, sustainability director for Latin America at Natura &Co, which brings together the Natura, Avon, The Body Shop and Aesop brands.

According to the executive, the Amazônia de Pé website already exists, where people can print the form to make a physical signature and send it to the organization by mail. “This call is for everyone. We have already mobilized through the consultants [revendedoras de produtos Natura] so they can do that too. We see consultants as mobilization agents like anyone else. We join with our consultants and our employees”, says Hills.

The company is still defining how the approach will be carried out in stores. “To sign, you have to be physical. You have to have a voter registration card. There is a description of the process. So, to ensure that this happens, we will make this mobilization in some initiatives from here until the end of the year and guarantee that our network of consultants and stores can also join this movement”, he says.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Gilmara Santos