Mountain bike competitions always take place in harmony with sustainability and the environment. A constant practice at the CIMTB - Copa Internacional de Mountain Bike events for a few years now, the planting of native trees to reduce CO2 emissions is confirmed once again. The action takes place in a partnership between Projeto Plantar and the local organization of the Araxá stage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series.

The planting cycle of a batch of 1,000 trees began at the end of last January and continued until last February 26th, in the municipalities of Bambuí, São Roque de Minas and Tapira, all of them in the Serra da Canastra region. The municipalities are neighbours of Araxá, with distances ranging between 50 and 160 km from the city that will host the second stage of the 2024 UCI MTB World Series between April 18th and 21st.

We repeated the action we had in the last edition of the World Cup in Brazil, in April 2022, in the city of Petrópolis, but with a big difference. While in that edition we planted after the event, this year we will already be at the event with the trees planted and Carbon sequestration in progress. In addition to carbon sequestration, planting takes place in degraded areas, recovering springs and watercourses in the São Francisco River basin, images of the planting and environmental education projects will be shown to the cycling community during the event.

André Xavier, one of the main people responsible for the Plantar Project - Empresa Amiga da Natureza.

It was through the planting of 700 native reforestation seedlings that the CIMTB became a partner of Projeto Plantar, after the Araxá stage of the competition, held in 2021. The Empresa Amiga da Natureza campaign seeks to reduce emissions of CO2 through the planting of native seedlings in degraded areas.

Each tree planted generates a "green certificate", that is, the birth certificate that this tree was planted. With a QR Code (tracking code), you can follow how the tree is being planted here.

Projeto Plantar is the first voluntary reforestation startup with QR Code tracking in Latin America. The company seeks financial subsidies from environmentally responsible companies, applying directly to the other extreme, that is, in the areas of rural family farming producers, through the reforestation of springs in watercourses and in degraded areas, at no cost to the producer.

It is always a great pleasure for us at CiMTB to participate in this action alongside the Plantar Project. Copa Internacional was born in the mid-1990s with total respect for nature and always thinking about issues of sustainability and the environment. Therefore, we could not fail to repeat in this unprecedented stage of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Araxá, what we have already done in other events we have held in the recent past.

praises the local organiser of the Araxá stage of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series and the CIMTB circuit, Rogério Bernardes.

The project
The Projeto Platar works with the planting of native trees in areas of environmental degradation, seeking to reforest these places, either through the Empresa Amiga da Natureza (nature-friendly company) campaign, or through events/actions carried out by companies focused on the Environment.

The campaign
Planting is carried out through a partnership between Projeto Plantar and socially and environmentally responsible companies through the Empresa Amiga da Natureza (nature-friendly company) campaign. The partnership is associated with a seal that can be used by partners on their social networks, product labels, packaging, among other forms of green marketing (www.allcare.com.br/boletosustentavel). The main focus is to help companies interested in operating sustainably in the market to reduce their environmental impacts. In this way, at the same time that the company reduces its "ecological footprint" it helps the Environment to recover, planting trees and sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Araxá local organization
The CIMTB organization held its first race in 1996. Since then, it has been innovating and actively contributing to the growth and strengthening of mountain biking and the bicycle market in Brazil. Counting points for the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) world ranking since 2003, the CIMTB has been selective for the Olympic Games since the cycles of Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and now for the Paris 2024 competition.

In 2022, CIMTB further increased its international relevance, with the opening stage of the 2022 Mercedes-Benz Mountain Bike World Cup, in Petrópolis (RJ). Furthermore, he was responsible for building the mountain bike track for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, considered one of the best in the history of the Games since 1996, the first year of MTB at the Olympics.

The first two rounds of the endurance side of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series is set to take place in Mairiporã, Brazil 12-14 April and Araxa, Brazil 19-21 April.