Forest Restoration in Brazil

This report by CPI/PUC-Rio analyzes the barriers to large-scale forest restoration in Brazil, highlighting the need for a regulatory shift from property-scale to landscape-scale management. It identifies three critical requirements: the flexibility to use multiple restoration modalities (from natural regeneration to agroforestry), the integration of public and private lands despite complex tenure issues (especially in the Amazon), and the synergy between mandatory legal obligations and voluntary restoration. The document also notes a conflict between the Forest Code and environmental licensing rules that hinders native silviculture.

• Brazil has approximately 35 million hectares of severely degraded land. In the Amazon region, carbon prices above U$ 20 per ton of CO2 could potentially capture 16 Gt CO2 and generate U$ 320 billion in revenue over 30 years through natural regeneration.
• Current Brazilian restoration policies are designed for property-scale rather than landscape-scale implementation. To enable large-scale restoration, the report identifies three essential factors: permitting a multitude of restoration typologies within a single project, breaking down barriers between public and private land tenure categories, and integrating both mandatory legal obligations and voluntary alternative land use areas.
• Restoration in Brazil can be mandatory under three scenarios: as a remedy for environmental damage (where liability is objective and irrespective of fault), as a result of non-compliance with conservation obligations (such as Permanent Preservation Areas and Legal Reserves), or as a compensatory measure for legal deforestation or other authorized activities.
• There is a normative contradiction regarding voluntary restoration: while the Forest Code suggests that planting native or exotic species does not require prior authorization, CONAMA Resolution no. 237/1997 and various state laws treat silviculture as a potentially polluting activity subject to environmental licensing and fees (TCFA).
• Land tenure in the Amazon is highly complex, with public lands making up approximately 63% of the region and private areas only 17%, while over 15% lack tenure information. This uncertainty, along with land grabbing and fraudulent titles, creates significant challenges for large-scale restoration projects.
• The concept of restoration has evolved from a strict focus on ecological restoration (returning an ecosystem to its original condition) to a broader definition that includes productive arrangements such as agroforestry systems (AFS), native species silviculture, and crop-cattle-forest integration (CCFI).

APA

Lopes, C. L., & Chiavari, J. (2024). Forest Restoration in Brazil. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Report-Forest-Restoration-in-Brazil.pdf

Chicago

Lopes, Cristina Leme, and Joana Chiavari. Forest Restoration in Brazil. Climate Policy Initiative, 2024. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Report-Forest-Restoration-in-Brazil.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lopes |first1=Cristina Leme |last2=Chiavari |first2=Joana |title=Forest Restoration in Brazil |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=March 2024 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Report-Forest-Restoration-in-Brazil.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lopes2024forest, author = {Lopes, Cristina Leme and Chiavari, Joana}, title = {{Forest Restoration in Brazil}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Report-Forest-Restoration-in-Brazil.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }