The Wildlife Corridors Programme

While winter storms are blazing in the planet's northern hemisphere, it is summertime in Pontal do Paranapanema, Brazil. Summertime equals rainy season, which is good news for the newly planted seedlings. For the planting teams in the field the heavy showers bring challenges. Luckily, rain showers generally don't last that long in the Pontal.

While the rains may cause difficulties for the field teams, at the tree nurseries it spells good news. It is an extremely busy time for the nursery workers, who are making the most of the rains to grow seedlings like pau-viola, jatobá, copaíba and jacaranda. These species are indigenous for the Atlantic Forest and thrive under the hot and humid conditions. By the time the nursery workers are done, they'll have planted more than four thousand seedlings of each species ready for planting in the field in a matter of months.

The results of all the hard work are worth every effort. Our team in Brazil has just been back from a visit to recently restored sites. During the visit they checked on the survival of the seedlings and took aerial drone photographs so that in the future we can compare restored forest with the original. "The planting was done at the right time, taking advantage of the rainy season. The seedlings enjoy the advantage of this natural irrigation and develop very well", explains Nivaldo Campos, coordinator of the agroforestry nurseries in Pontal.

We are very excited to see that the seedlings look healthy and growing well. We look forward to watching them flourish into a dense, biodiverse forest.