Restoring Brazil's Atlantic Forest

It’s an exciting time when you can start to see how the new forest structure will look. A picture starts to emerge when invasive grasses have died away and the planted seedlings have become established. It’s then that the natural regeneration potential of a plot also becomes evident. 

A second vegetation assessment was carried out in Pontal by our consultancy partner Embira in September, and they’ve just delivered the results. Their studies show that even in very young plots like the one shown above - where restoration took place a year or eighteen months ago - some species that help natural regeneration are already growing. For example, they found an abundance of short-lived species Solanum granuloso-leprosum (below) and Solanum mauritianum (known as wild tobacco or woolly nightshade), both of which act as ‘pioneers’ to prepare the ground for other plants. These species are very attractive to birds and bats, so they’ll be crucial for ecological processes such as flower pollination and fruit dispersal. They’ll really boost the natural regeneration abilities of our intervention areas.

Thank you for making this possible!

In our Wildlife Corridors project, we’ve partnered with Rainforest Connection to monitor the diversity, distribution and activity patterns of animals by recording ‘Soundscapes’ in our restored areas. The recorders we’ve installed across our sites will record species-specific patterns to identify the presence or abundance of up to 50 species. The data gathered will also contribute to Rainforest Connection’s ‘Audio Ark’ – a digital library of shareable, searchable forest sounds and ecodata for use by scientists and land managers to help protect and conserve the world’s forests.

This is WeForest’s Brazil Country Manager Cris with an Embaúba tree (Cecropia sp.). We know tapirs have been around when we find these fast-growing trees broken (inset), as they love to eat the fresh leaves at the top. But it’s not a problem: the hardy Embaúbas usually resprout, and eventually feed the tapirs again. And as tapirs also eat a lot of other fruits, they contribute to our work by leaving other types of seeds in their droppings, such as palm seeds, to regenerate spontaneously in our restored sites!

The animals of Tietê

The hidden cameras placed by AES Brasil at our new Tietê Forests project site have been capturing some amazing sights, including this adorable family of capybaras, the largest living rodent in the world. We’ve also seen a mother puma and her kittens, crab-eating foxes and an endangered giant anteater!

Check out the videos and some recent photos from the project in the Flickr album.

A princess and a scientist

As a child, Aline always wanted to be close to nature and was very curious about animals and plants. She once asked her family: “Is it possible to be a princess and a scientist?” Now graduated, Aline works with our Wildlife Corridors project partner, IPÊ, full time, focusing on environmental education and capacity building in local communities. “It is extremely motivating to look around and see all the work that already has been done, and so much that still can be done,” she says. For her, working with local communities is working with the people and the region where she was born. She sees the forest as her backyard and taking care of it is part of her routine, and knows that working with people and generating income is key for forest restoration.

Adapting to change 

The 2020-2021 planting season is finalizing the almost 200 ha that had been started in the second quarter of the year, as well as preparing almost 195 ha that will be planted by April 2021. Together, these areas have a target of nearly 800,000 trees! Planting here is very dependent on climatic conditions and used to take place from October to March, but temperatures in December and January now regularly reach 42°C, which kills young seedlings. Not only that, but the rainy season – which compensated for the temperature – is less predictable than before. From now on, planting will be scheduled twice per year: for March to June when it’s cooler, and then from September to November, so when the rains finally arrive again the seedlings are better established.

Meet Claudio, a master planter

Claudio is the son of rural settlers who moved to the area in the 1960s. He has always enjoyed working directly with the land, and in the 1990s he joined IPÊ’s tree planting initiatives. In the beginning, he had very little equipment, but with the income from the activities he was able to invest in tools and hire staff. Now Claudio owns his own company that works full time on the restoration activities with a team of 11 people. He has learned a lot over the years: in the beginning, he was able to plant 2000 seedlings a day; today he plants 11,000 per day with the same number of staff. As well as providing jobs to the local community, his work has allowed him to send his four children to university, and he proudly lists their careers: veterinarian, doctor, agronomist and dentist. As if this wasn’t enough, he also manages one of the project’s community nurseries, producing around 120,000 native tree seedlings per year.

The Whitley Fund for Nature's Whitley Awards honour outstanding biodiversity conservation leaders in developing countries around the world. This year Gabriela Cabral Rezende, coordinator of the Black Lion Tamarin Conservation Programme at IPE and WeForest’s Wildlife Corridors project in Brazil, is one of them! The prize will allow the programme to grow even more corridors to connect all the populations of black lion tamarins in the region. These small relatives of the marmoset are only found in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, and are listed as endangered. The restoration of the forests here uses more than 100 tree species that we know the animals use for food.