ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

   The Gerdau Group is involved in projects to develop environmental awareness in partnership with universities, the Brazilian Steel Institute (IBS), the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) and, on an international level, the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) and the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA).

  In the last year, the Company participated in about 50 community-related activities, such as the Education for Nature Project, which should benefit about 24,000 students in Rio de Janeiro by 2004. The aim of this initiative is to raise social awareness of the importance of preserving the Tijuca Forest, listed as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

   Since 1997, Gerdau has participated in the Adopt-a-Class Wetlands Program in Canada, which has already reached more than 3,000 teachers and nine to ten year old students in the Selkirk region where the Gerdau AmeriSteel MRM Special Sections mill is located. The program includes partnerships with Ducks Unlimited and the Lord Selkirk school division.

   In the United States, a group of more than 60 Community Action Team (CAT) volunteers took part in the planting of native vegetation in a new municipal park in Tampa, Florida.