Restoring Brazil's Atlantic Forest

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!

We’ve received some very impressive drone pictures of some of our restoration areas. They show very clearly the significant progress that has been made over the last two or three years. 

In as little as three years, this restored area in the north corridor’s Sao Paulo farm (above) has connected two large remaining fragments of the Atlantic Forest. The left image shows the area in September 2021 and the right in January 2023, now a 3km long stretch of green. It will provide a new migration route to help black lion tamarins, which are known to be present in the northerly fragment, to spread and thrive.

We’ve also got the first sound samples from our collaboration with Rainforest Connection (RFCx), in which 120 audio devices have been monitoring bird and animal species in sampling points in our restored areas, as well as in the existing forest fragments and agricultural areas. 

So far, the sounds of 178 species have been detected in the sampling sites: 166 birds, 8 frogs, 2 mammals and 2 insects, 4 of which are listed as threatened according to IUCN’s Red List. 

Analysis by RFCx shows that bird species richness was higher in forested and restoration sites than in farming sites, indicating that restoration sites are promoting a positive effect on biodiversity, providing breeding and foraging habitats, and/or connectivity stepping stones for a large portion of the bird community. This is very encouraging, suggesting that even though our restoration sites are still in the early stages of development, they are already functioning more like forest habitat than adjacent farmland, providing habitat to many species associated with protected forests. 

Thank you for making this possible!

Hey there 

I'm Liz, WeForest's Corporate Partnership Development Manager. I’ve recently returned from a super inspiring visit to our Wildlife Corridors programme in Brazil which I can't wait to tell you about. 

Seeing first-hand the devastating effects agricultural farming has had on the Atlantic Forest really brought home to me just how important the work is that we are doing here.

Because of the wonderful generosity of you and other donors, we have now exceeded the 2 million tree mark in this incredibly biodiverse biome! Thank you, thank you, thank you :)

Restoring such a diverse forest landscape isn't easy. The level of detail that goes into the process from sourcing and storing the seeds to planting and caring for the seedlings in the nurseries before they are finally planted in the wild is truly mind blowing! With over 120 different tree species all with different needs, there's some serious planning required to ensure these trees not only survive but thrive for the long term. 

By restoring forests strategically, we’re also helping animals to have a better chance of survival. Trees are planted to create wildlife corridors which join remaining forest fragments together, giving species larger areas to roam and breed and guess what .......it's working!!!

Whilst visiting an area restored around 8 years ago by our partner AES, we had the great (and very rare) privilege of seeing a puma using these forests! Check out the video on the youtube link to see the puma entering the young forest! 

This year, WeForest is participating in GlobalGiving’s Giving Tuesday incentive. This 24-hour campaign takes place on 29th November, a global day of giving celebrated by nonprofits, corporations, and donors alike!

GlobalGiving is offering a $1,200,000 incentive fund to organizations who receive the most funding on the day so we're super excited to see what WeForest can achieve with your help.

Without your kind donations none of this would be possible, so thank you once again from all of us here at WeForest and of course Patsy (the puma)

Links:

• Puma entering a restoration area, Tiete

The adjustments we’ve made in planting and maintenance are already showing a much better result than the seedlings we monitored early this year, which, after the worst dry spell in 91 years being followed by unprecedented frosts, were showing lower survival rates than usual.  Though we haven’t got the data analyzed yet, it’s clear to the naked eye that the seedlings are coming up faster and stronger. Invasive grass control is also taking place so that replanting can start once the rains arrive, hopefully in October. 

The photo shows an area approximately six months after planting where the new technique of irrigating at the same time as planting was carried out. During the last field visit, our Brazil Project Manager was impressed by the high survival estimates – around 90% in some areas, like this one. Early in 2023 a vegetation assessment will take place to measure survival and development of planted trees as well as spontaneous regeneration. 

As well as making adjustments in planting techniques to ensure better survival, our partner Viveiro Floresta (IPÊ) is helping the community nurseries improve their facilities, making sure there will be enough seedlings to fulfill the increasing restoration demand at Pontal. Following a workshop organized by WeForest and IPÊ at the end of last year, the nursery staff have been using the reference books and incorporating the best identification practices into their daily routine. Year after year, the identification of the best performing species will be tailored to concentrate on the most likely to survive and develop in the field.

Thank you for making this possible!

During 2021, 305.24 more hectares were restored, with an estimated 610 000 trees growing. Unfortunately, the intense heat of 2021 – the worst dry spell in 91 years – followed by unprecedented frosts created a significant challenge for young seedlings here. Our recent monitoring assessments earlier this year showed average survival rates of 40% in plantings less than two years old: that’s half our target rate.

To mitigate this, a work plan and timeline for replanting is under development, including species selection to focus on those more resistant to low rainfall and less fertile soil. This is likely to reduce the number of native species planted but will be a more resilient planting strategy for future climate shocks. Secondly, our planting teams are testing ways to enhance the survival and development of planted seedlings. One way will see irrigation and fertilizer applied at the same time as planting (above) and is expected to support faster root development during the high temperatures these young seedlings endure.

However, the fauna in our restored sites seems to be thriving! Many signs of wildlife in the corridors have been captured on 29 camera traps and 120 audio recorders. So far, camera footage of 23 different animal species in the corridors include tapirs, maned wolves (below), pumas and even a jaguar, and 11 000 hours of data from 120 audio recorders is being analysed to quantify bird species and activity.

Thank you for making this possible!