Large-Scale Reforestation: Starting With Public Lands In The Brazilian Amazon

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative argues that Brazil can achieve large-scale reforestation and meet its Paris Agreement emissions targets by prioritizing natural forest regeneration on public lands in the Amazon, specifically within protected territories and undesignated public lands.

• Natural forest regeneration in the Brazilian Amazon has shown significant growth without targeted policy intervention, increasing by more than 70% between 2004 and 2014, from 10 million to over 17 million hectares. This suggests that tropical regeneration is physically viable in a short timeframe and that much cleared land is currently abandoned and not put to productive use.
• Protected territories in the Brazilian Amazon are ideal for initiating reforestation due to their defined governance, monitoring by specialized agencies, and proximity to primary forests, which provide essential seed banks and pollinators. As of 2014, approximately two million hectares of deforested areas under protection had regenerated, leaving three million hectares of cleared land as a primary target for reforestation.
• Undesignated public lands in the Amazon, totaling about 90 million hectares, present a more challenging but viable opportunity for reforestation. These areas contained nearly 13 million hectares of deforestation as of 2014 and are often subject to illegal occupation and land grabbing; therefore, combining reforestation with land tenure regularization could align environmental and local development goals.
• To meet its voluntary Paris Agreement commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over a third below 2005 levels, Brazil aims to restore and reforest 12 million hectares of degraded or deforested lands by 2030. While the National Plan for Recovery of Native Vegetation (Planaveg), launched in 2017, focuses on private lands, a complementary strategy for public lands is necessary to reach this target.

APA

Gandour, C., & Assuno, J. (2019). Large-Scale Reforestation: Starting With Public Lands In The Brazilian Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/INPUT_Insights_Large-Scale_Reforestation_EN.pdf

Chicago

Gandour, Clarissa, and Juliano Assuno. Large-Scale Reforestation: Starting With Public Lands In The Brazilian Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative, 2019. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/INPUT_Insights_Large-Scale_Reforestation_EN.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gandour |first1=Clarissa |last2=Assuno |first2=Juliano |title=Large-Scale Reforestation: Starting With Public Lands In The Brazilian Amazon |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=January 2019 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/INPUT_Insights_Large-Scale_Reforestation_EN.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gandour2019largescale, author = {Gandour, Clarissa and Assuno, Juliano}, title = {{Large-Scale Reforestation: Starting With Public Lands In The Brazilian Amazon}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2019}, month = jan, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/INPUT_Insights_Large-Scale_Reforestation_EN.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }