Ensuring the renewal cycle of water is essential for life on the planet and for our production process. Eucalyptus and native forests play an important role in this cycle. Our forests cover more than 2 million hectares in Brazil, and we know that some territories are subject to water shortages due to natural characteristics. The effort to take care of this resource is everyone's responsibility.

We mapped all the watersheds in which Suzano operates and selected three main criteria for classifying critical watersheds: historical hydrological monitoring data, complaints from communities in the region, and the relevance of the company's occupation in the watershed. We selected 44 critical watersheds¹ and carried out a diagnosis for each watershed, with technical recommendations for management actions that directly impact the water balance. Among the main ones, we would highlight the demobilization that foresees the closure of Suzano's operations in some areas, the application of an age mosaic to reduce the pressure of water demand and the reduction in planting density, which reduces the number of trees in the same area. In this way, the company has committed to anticipate and apply local mitigating and/or transforming measures to prevent water restriction events.

Implementation of forest stewardship recommendations in Suzano's plantation areas, to increase water availability in the 44 watersheds classified as critical. This totals 88,400 hectares, in which our operations are located.

Implement forest stewardship actions² aimed at increasing water availability in the basins mapped as critical by 2030

In 2023, we reached 8.7% of critical river basins managed according to the technical recommendations to increase water availability, an increase of 0.5 percentage points on the previous year.

Throughout the year, there was a reduction in the company's pace of production compared to its nominal production capacity, which required adjustments in management actions in the areas planned to achieve the target.

However, despite this scenario, we have managed to implement management actions on around 370 hectares, focused on reducing tree density, which contributes to increasing local water availability. We are also working on developing projects to measure water use using statistical models and remote sensing, which should help optimize water monitoring in the different basins in which we operate.

In 2024, the main actions planned are: 1. implementing age mosaic management in the areas planned for it 2. continuing to carry out research and development projects to increase the accuracy of the tools used to check the evolution of the management actions adopted (procedural and satellite modeling) and 3. installing checkpoints in the field (in situ) to monitor water in the watersheds considered critical. All of these actions contribute, directly or indirectly, to advancing our goal of increasing water availability in our areas of operation, considering basins where there is a risk of water scarcity. .