Forest Restoration in Brazil: Essential Factors for Promoting Restoration at Scale

The report analyzes Brazil's complex restoration landscape, arguing that current policies are designed for property-scale rather than landscape-scale implementation. It identifies three critical factors for scaling: permitting a variety of restoration typologies within single projects, overcoming land tenure uncertainties on public lands, and integrating mandatory legal obligations with voluntary restoration activities. The authors suggest that the ongoing revision of the National Plan for Native Vegetation Recovery (PLANAVEG) is a key opportunity to implement these changes.

• Current Brazilian restoration policies are primarily designed for property-scale implementation rather than landscape-scale, creating obstacles for projects that span multiple rural properties, jurisdictions, or stakeholders.
• To enhance economic and socio-environmental viability, large-scale projects should be able to combine multiple restoration modalities—such as natural regeneration, native silviculture, and agroforestry systems (AFS)—within a single project, though current regulations may inconsistently require or exempt environmental licensing for these different methods.
• Land tenure uncertainty, particularly in the Amazon where public lands comprise approximately 63% of the region, hinders large-scale restoration; success depends on developing innovative contractual models and effective land governance.
• Large-scale initiatives must integrate areas of mandatory restoration (such as those required to remedy environmental damage or comply with the Forest Code) with areas of voluntary alternative land use, despite the practical challenges of adhering to different legal parameters for each.
• There is a normative contradiction between the Forest Code, which generally exempts the planting of native and exotic species from prior authorization, and environmental licensing regulations (such as CONAMA Resolution no. 237/1997) that treat silviculture as a potentially polluting activity subject to licensing.
• The carbon market represents a significant catalyst for restoration, with nature-based solutions estimated to reach U$ 50 billion by 2030, and potential revenues in the Amazon alone reaching U$ 320 billion over 30 years if carbon prices exceed U$ 20 per ton of CO2.

APA

Lopes, C. L., & Chiavari, J. (2024). Forest Restoration in Brazil: Essential Factors for Promoting Restoration at Scale. 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: Essential Factors for Promoting Restoration at Scale. 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: Essential Factors for Promoting Restoration at Scale |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: Essential Factors for Promoting Restoration at Scale}}, 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} }