The Wildlife Corridors Programme

To improve our project management and restoration methods, WeForest collaborates with a number of researchers and forest landscape restoration experts. Among them are two graduate students at the University of São Paulo - Carolina Giudice Badari and Loren Belei.

Over the past couple of months, Carolina and Loren have been examining the ecological and socio-economic benefits of agroforestry in Pontal do Paranapanema, the Brazilian region where our project is based. They observed that restoration using agroforestry systems often brought better ecological results than conventional restoration. In particular, areas restored using agroforestry systems showed higher forest canopy cover, diversity and density than conventional restoration areas of the same age.

From a socio-economic perspective, agroforestry systems seem to not only provide an additional source of income, but also to have an effect on how landowners view their land. Landowners appear to have gained a better understanding of how the small green areas of forest on their land benefit the wider landscape.

Carolina and Loren are continuing their research but their initial findings already suggest that interaction between man and nature has the potential to bring benefits both to the conservation of forests and to the landowners.

Community engagement, livelihood improvement and inclusiveness are part of WeForest’s restoration principles. Thanks to your support, we can continue Making Earth Cooler for people, planet and climate!