Restoring Brazil's Atlantic Forest

The community nurseries supported by our project with IPÊ in the Pontal do Paranapanema region are paving the way in the sustainable production of native seedlings. The traditional plastic tubes are being replaced by biodegradable paper tubes that don't harm the environment, known as ‘ecopots’. 

As well as the environmental benefits, the pots are kinder to the seedlings. "The roots are able to pass through the biodegradable tube due to the porosity of the paper,” Nivaldo Ribeiro Campos, coordinator of the community nurseries, says. “The new pots keep the roots closer to their natural state and help the development of the seedlings in the ground." In addition, the seedlings are transported to the field without the need to remove the container, as is the case with traditional tubes. This reduces waste, labour and, consequently, costs.

IPÊ provided each nursery with an average of 40 production trays and 5,000 ecopots to start the transition process. We’re already seeing that nursery owners are pleased with them, with 10% of production already being carried out using the new tubes.

Iraci Lopes Corado, owner of the Viva Verde nursery, found that the Jatobá seed (Hymenaea courbaril) is one of the species that develops very well in the ecopots, and the production of different species of ipês (Handroanthus or Tabebuia spp.) has improved a lot. The rooting of this species made it difficult to remove the seedling from plastic containers, which led to a lot of split or broken pots to discard, or even the death of seedlings sometimes. "With the ecopot, this problem no longer exists because the seedling goes straight into the ground," she says. She likes them so much that she’s invested her own funds in 460 more trays!

In our Tietê Forests project with AES Brasil, there was excitement all around last month for the first ever harvest from the Dandara Rural Settlement agroforestry plots! 

Silvia, pictured here with her mother Cícera, has been nurturing different types of pumpkins, green beans and peppers since she established her 0.5 ha agroforestry system back in December 2022, alongside fruit and native tree species. She sold 13 kg of veg, earning BRL 91 (about US$19) in local markets – and she's also sharing her pumpkins with her neighbours, ensuring her family gets their fair share, and even keeping her pigs well-fed.

In 2024, she'll expand her pumpkin production, aiming to supply public institutions through a Brazilian policy that supports small farmers by providing food to schools, hospitals and prisons. As her trees keep growing, Silvia's taking full advantage of her plot’s potential to produce a bountiful harvest. We're thrilled to see these incredible results!

In Pontal, the next areas for 2023-2024’s planting have been defined, and our Brazil country manager Natalia visited the already restored sites to check on the maintenance activities. All is looking well, as can be seen in the photos above. The  top picture shows Estrela farm in the North Corridor, where full planting took place over 138 hectares. The land on the left side of the track was planted about 4 months before the picture was taken – the trees and shrubs are shooting up beautifully! On the right site of the track there’s an area that was planted just a few days before. See the tiny green seedlings? 

In the bottom picture is Categeró Farm in our newest area of restoration, the East Corridor on the eastern side of the Morro do Diabo State Park. The photo shows an area where only enrichment planting took place about a year before the photo was taken, not full planting. Enrichment planting is an Assisted Natural Regeneration approach where seedlings are planted to increase the density of existing tree species, or to re-introduce species that have gone missing in the ecosystem. You can see that this area is already starting to look like a dense forest! 

Our second Atlantic Forest project in Brazil, Tietê Forests, is also going well. This collaboration with AES Brasil aims to restore the forest on the edges of the Tietê river in the Atlantic Biome and its tributaries with native species, as well as establishing agroforestry systems with neighbouring families in Dandara Rural Settlement. In the 2022-2023 planting season that spanned the end of last year and the beginning of this one, 20 families established 12.4 hectares of agroforestry systems on their lands, growing fruit and native tree species. The Tietê Forests project provided seedlings and training, but all the manpower was done by the families – they all got together at one home to help establish the plot, and then the next weekend they did it again at another home, and so on. They report that this has really brought them together as a community: they even have a Whatsapp group where they share pictures, advice and tips!  

The teams and stakeholders from both projects got together in June for a multi-day capacity building workshop, during which they visited one another’s project locations and exchanged experiences and good practices, with both sides presenting their project highlights.

Thank you for making this possible!