EVASA seeks to have a positive impact on the communities that surround the area where its forestry activities take place, promoting local development and ensuring that its inhabitants continuously improve their quality of life.

The company’s Social Management Plan considers two large groups of interest: the external public, or the community in general; and, the internal public, of which the operators, service companies and the company’s own employees are members.

The defined social programs are aimed at contributing to their well-being and raising the conditions of their quality of life in general.

To achieve this, EVASA carries out actions that aim to identify points of interest while educating and informing about its operations as well as environmental, sustainability and social issues.

 

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  • Community Relations
  • Local Economic Development
  • Labor Conditions
  • Training and Education
  • Improvement of Public Roads
  • Fire Awareness
Community Relations
  • We maintain close links with the local communities and the residents of the properties through different programs such as the “Open Gates” through which we receive the visit of neighbors and interested parties in order to let them know about our internal team, operations, the forest management plan, our social and environmental management and the results of monitoring
  • Guided visits are carried out at the request of educational institutions of various kinds such as local schools, technicians, universities, with provincial authorities and with other actors that require it.
  • We frequently carry out workshops and training sessions for communities with diverse themes such as the environment, sustainable management, first aid, culture, etc.
  • We carry out a “Family Organic Garden Program” in which some 60 families from the communities of Mboy Cua, Montaña, Concepción and Chavarría participate. We seek to revalue family food production, diversify diet, increase the possibility of generating surpluses for sale, and promote community and team work, among other objectives.
  • We periodically monitor social impact and seek new opportunities for joint action to contribute to the development of local communities, from their perspective and within the framework of local culture.
  • We keep and maintain open communication ways for consultation and we train personnel to attend to inquiries from interested parties.
Local Economic Development
  • We supply wood to local industries, thus helping them to promote genuine local work in existing enterprises, amplifying the positive impact due to a multiplier effect on local economic activity and job creation.
  • We maintain a local purchasing policy prioritizing suppliers from the communities close to the management units.
  • We maintain a local employment policy promoting the hiring of local labor among our service companies. This policy has allowed us to increase the percentage of local labor every year, which is currently at 75%..
Labor Conditions
  • We operate within the legal labor framework at the national level while also respecting international conventions such as those of the ILO (International Labor Organization).We require and monitor formal employment conditions, with contracts freely agreed between the parties, with fair wages and pension payments.
  • Our “Health and Safety Plan” checks compliance with current legal regulations in the field on safe work, allowing to maintain rates well below the local average in terms of accidents.
  • We provide high standard housing conditions to our service companies, in terms of food, hygiene, accommodations and complementary amenities.
Training and Education
  • A training and education program is periodically updated such that it guarantees the maintenance of quality standards set by the company. It includes environmental, social, operational and hygiene and safety aspects. The program reaches not only the internal team but also the workers of the service companies and their communities with the aim of increasing the hiring of local labor in the long term and sharing part of the knowledge imparted with local stakeholders.
  • For the same purpose, we provide technical training to secondary schools and local technicians, through our technical staff and advisers.
  • We adhere to the “labor competency certification program” that is offered through the Argentine Forestry Association and the Ministry of Labor, training and motivating operators to undergo competency evaluations, awarding their work through a certificate that accredits it.

 

Improvement of Public Roads
  • EVASA sells timber road side, placed on trucks, being the responsibility of the customers the transport to their industrial centers. For this reason, it has a Forest Operations Center that coordinates logistics and information to and from clients. From there, the production information, transport flows, operating hours and monitoring of eventual impacts on the community are managed. This Central also coordinates a variety of aspects related to the safety of operations, environmental and social risks, fire prevention and control, etc
  • Aware of the impact and in solidarity with the well-being of the community, EVASA unilaterally carries out the maintenance of Route 22 necessary to ensure its passability .
  • This initiative is combined with the policy of avoiding transport operations on rainy days, thus helping to reduce the risk of deterioration of public roads.
  • In periods of normal operation, an irrigation program on public roads is maintained in order to mitigate the problems of suspended dust generated by the traffic of trucks.
Fire Awareness
  • We have a fire prevention and fighting plan in order to prevent possible fire outbreaks that could affect our tree farms and the neighboring communities. To this end, the company takes part and is a founding member of the Sta. Rosa Forestry Consortium, through which the availability of a tanker plane for the area was managed.
  • We maintain internal brigades of workers from our service companies well trained in fire-fighting that annually combat outbreaks within the assets of the company and neighbors.
  • We carry out communications and awareness workshops regarding fire prevention.
  • The company has provided and makes airstrips available to the province and firefighting personnel when required.