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

The policy brief proposes using public lands in the Brazilian Amazon as a starting point for large-scale reforestation, leveraging natural forest regeneration to meet Brazil's Paris Agreement commitments. It highlights that protected territories offer a strong regulatory framework and biophysical advantages, while undesignated public lands, despite higher conflict risks, present a significant opportunity to address wasteful land use and illegal occupation.

• Natural forest regeneration in the Brazilian Amazon increased significantly between 2004 and 2014, growing from 10 million to over 17 million hectares, which demonstrates that tropical regeneration is physically viable even without targeted policy action.
• Protected territories in the Brazilian Amazon are ideal for reforestation because they have defined governance, monitoring by specialized agencies, and proximity to primary forests which provide seed banks and pollinators.
• Undesignated public lands in the Amazon represent a major area of deforestation, with nearly 13 million hectares deforested as of 2014, but reforestation here is complicated by rural violence, squatting, and property rights conflicts.
• Brazil has committed to restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares of degraded or deforested lands nationwide by 2030 to meet its Paris Agreement goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over a third below 2005 levels.
• The National Plan for Recovery of Native Vegetation (Planaveg), launched in 2017, focuses on private lands, creating a need for a complementary strategy specifically for public areas.

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} }