STORY-TRÅD·politik

Restaura Biomas to restore 600,000 ha of native vegetation in Brazil

A coalition of environmental organizations will launch the Restaura Biomas project this week, an initiative aimed at expanding the restoration of native vegetation in Brazil. The announcement was made during the 6th Brazilian Conference on Ecological Restoration (SOBRE 2026), taking place in Brasília this week. The initiative is led by União pela Restauração, a coalition created in 2021 during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). The project is implemented by the World Resources Institute (WRI) Brazil in partnership with Conservation International (CI-Brazil), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Brazil, and WWF-Brazil. Notícias relacionadas:Brazil’s burned area in 2025 is 31% below historical average.Deforestation alerts in the Amazon plunge 35% in June.New technologies help firefighters protect Brazil’s cerrado biome.The project aims to help the country meet its commitment to restore 12 million hectares of native vegetation by 2030-a target established through international agreements and outlined in the National Policy for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Proveg). The plan is to restore 600,000 hectares of native vegetation, promote sustainable practices across 1.2 million hectares, reduce the equivalent of 34 million metric tons of CO₂e emissions, and directly benefit 150,000 people, at least 35 percent of whom will be women. To achieve these results, the plan includes strengthening public policies, expanding investments, structuring production chains, improving governance, and connecting existing regional initiatives. According to WWF-Brazil’s Restoration Leader, Taruhim Quadros, the initiative takes into account the differences among Brazil’s biomes to increase the effectiveness of its actions. “We look at Brazil’s six biomes: the Amazon, the Cerrado, the Caatinga, the Atlantic Forest, the Pantanal, and the Pampa. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the entire country. Each biome and each region has its own ecological, social, and productive characteristics. Therefore, the project seeks to strengthen these conditions so that restoration can advance throughout Brazil, while also respecting and understanding these differences,” Quadros noted. She explained that WWF-Brazil will be responsible for the financial aspects of restoration, including the development of business models, financial mechanisms, and studies to support investment decisions, as well as for bringing together governments, companies, investors, civil society organizations, and communities. Mauricio Bianco, senior vice president of Conservation International (CI-Brazil), considers scaling up restoration essential to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss. “Our strategy is structured around three complementary approaches: the pilot scale, which implements projects directly in the field and strengthens the restoration value chain in partnership with local organizations and communities; the market scale, which unlocks financial flows and expands investments in restoration; and the public policy scale, which supports the implementation of the Forest Code and the National Policy for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Proveg),” Bianco pointed out. Julio Tymus, Forest Restoration Coordinator at TNC Brazil, emphasized that the project was developed through consultations with representatives from civil society, government, and the private sector. “What sets the Restaura Biomas project apart is its integrative approach, which considers public policies that are already in place, those that need to be improved, and the direct, practical actions of those who are truly on the front lines of the restoration chain at different scales-whether implementing projects, financing them, or developing public policies and legal instruments,” Tymus added.