Brazil has 3.4 million hectares under restoration, one third of the Planaveg target

The restoration of landscapes and forests is one of the nature-based solutions recognized by the IPCC to confront the climate crisis. It helps remove carbon from the atmosphere, increases resilience to droughts and floods, reduces disaster risks, and makes agricultural production systems more efficient and less vulnerable. Restoration is, at the same time, an agenda of climate, biodiversity, water, economic development, and social justice.

In Brazil, the National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Planaveg) is the main instrument for implementing the National Policy for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Proveg) and provides for the target of restoring 12 million hectares of forests by 2030. This target is connected to other commitments of the country, such as the climate NDC, biodiversity targets, and efforts to combat desertification, and engages with sectoral policies for deforestation control, bioeconomy, and conversion of degraded pastures.

Despite important initiatives for mapping and monitoring change in land use — including reference systems, such as Prodes, secondary vegetation data, and civil society platforms such as MapBiomas, GFW, and the Restoration Observatory — from a public policy perspective, there was still no information on how much of the 12 million is already under recovery. This scenario changes starting from COP30, in Belém, Pará, when the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA) presented the first official assessment of how much the country has already advanced toward the Planaveg target.

According to the Ministry, there are currently in Brazil 3.4 million hectares in the process of restoration, representing about 28% of the total target, or practically one third of the 12 million hectares. But how did the MMA arrive at these numbers?

Understanding the 3.4 million

The results presented by the government are part of the first reporting cycle of the National System for Reporting and Monitoring the Recovery of Native Vegetation. The methodology of the systematization was built collectively, with broad debate and approval in the National Commission for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Conaveg), the collegiate body responsible for implementing Planaveg in the country. The mapping was developed in partnership with FAO and with União pela Restauração, which includes WRI Brasil, TNC, WWF-Brasil, and CI Brasil and integrates experiences from various restoration projects and networks.

The methodology considers two main categories: areas of restoration projects registered in administrative systems, such as commitment terms, agreements, and projects monitored by public authorities, and areas with forest in the process of natural regeneration that are legally protected, such as Indigenous lands, conservation units, and areas protected by the Forest Code.

The power of nature and collective effort

One point that draws attention in the results is the important role that natural regeneration represents.

Areas in natural regeneration, also called secondary vegetation, are places where there was deforestation or degradation in the past and where, when the degradation factor is removed or reduced, the forest begins to recover on its own.

More than 1.7 million hectares of the 3.4 million under restoration correspond to secondary vegetation in protected areas, such as conservation units and Indigenous lands. In other words, an important part of the progress toward the target is due to the fact that nature is working in our favor, especially where there is territorial protection and reduction of pressures.

For areas in natural regeneration to be counted toward the target, it is essential that there be a clear protection action. This intentionality significantly increases the chances that these areas that are naturally recovering will remain over time and evolve to a more mature stage of vegetation.

This does not mean, however, that these areas are automatically guaranteed. Even protected areas are subject to degradation processes and fires. Ensuring the permanence of these regenerating forests, taking care of their ecological quality, and ensuring that they continue providing ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and protection of soil and water, is as important as opening new areas for restoration.

The potential of natural regeneration in private areas is also enormous, especially because of the technique of assisted natural regeneration. With small human interventions, such as fencing, fire control, and management of invasive species, an area can be restored with great cost-effectiveness, reducing expenses for producers and governments and increasing the scale of restoration.

Another point of emphasis in the results is the importance of collective effort in restoration. Restoration governance in Brazil is multiscale and multisectoral: it involves Conaveg, its articulation centers by biome and thematic technical chambers, federal agencies such as ICMBio, Ibama, the Brazilian Forest Service, sectoral ministries, state and municipal governments, restoration collectives, civil society organizations, universities, Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, cooperatives, and the private sector.

Restoration is development: work, income, and more resilient territories

The 3.4 million hectares in the process of restoration help reinforce that restoration is also a development agenda. Studies show that restoration actions can generate, on average, 0.42 jobs per hectare throughout the entire cycle, mobilizing seedling nurseries, seed collection networks, implementation and management of agroforestry systems, and associated environmental services. Applying this coefficient to the already identified volume of areas under restoration in the country, it is possible to estimate that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being generated or maintained by this agenda, especially in rural territories, where sustainable economic alternatives are fundamental to strengthen communities, reduce vulnerabilities, and expand income opportunities.

These jobs tend to be concentrated precisely in territories that most need economic alternatives: lower-income rural areas, traditional communities, and regions affected by deforestation and degradation. By combining restoration with food production, agroforestry systems, sustainable forest management, and bioeconomy, it is possible to generate income, strengthen food security, and reduce risks associated with the loss of resilience of landscapes, such as fires, floods, and water scarcity.

The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) itself has more than R$1 billion in financing for forest restoration in this year of 2025 alone, fostering organizations that work on actions aimed at the recovery, maintenance, and sustainable use of vegetation in Brazilian biomes.

Programs such as Productive Forests, developed in partnership between the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and the MMA, illustrate this path by supporting family farming in productive models that reconcile restoration, agroforestry systems, agroecological transition, and the valuing of sociobiodiversity. The strengthening of instruments such as PRONAF Forests, with long-term credit and subsidized interest for agroforestry systems, is a fundamental step so that more male and female farmers can join productive restoration at scale.

More than adding hectares, the challenge is to build a scale that counts not only restored area, but also the number of families involved, consolidated productive arrangements, and local networks of technical assistance, rural extension, and research. Without deep engagement from rural producers, local communities, and rural youth, there will be no lasting restoration.

How to reach 12 million hectares by 2030

There is still much work to be done to ensure that the 12 million are restored by 2030. It is necessary to advance, for example, in economic policies to strengthen the sector, in improving and harmonizing the legal framework, and in guaranteeing the quality and permanence of the areas, in addition to reducing risks, training restoration practitioners, and advancing in monitoring and guarantees for restoration.

An important project to support the implementation of Planaveg is Restaura Biomas, which seeks to create structural conditions to unlock investments, develop restoration production chains, and expand socioeconomic benefits for territories and communities.

Restaura Biomas is a national project approved within the scope of GEF-8, the Global Environment Facility, conceived to accelerate large-scale ecological restoration and strengthen public conservation policies in Brazil. Coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA) and executed by WRI Brasil, in partnership with União pela Restauração — CI-Brasil, The Nature Conservancy Brasil, WRI Brasil, and WWF-Brasil — it establishes an unprecedented articulation to recover native vegetation, improve governance, and expand sustainable management in all six biomes of the country, and can be an accelerator of the restoration target in Brazil.

It is also important to mobilize resources and unlock investments. Initiatives such as the Flora Fund, launched at COP30 by WRI Brasil and Sitawi, seek to mobilize resources for organizations that operate on the front line of restoration.

Fostering a new restoration economy

Enabling governance and financial mechanisms are necessary strategies for us to reach the two thirds of hectares of restoration, according to the Planaveg target. When well articulated, these two components can help create a more strengthened and cohesive restoration sector.

For this, it is necessary for us to see the sector through the lens of a new restoration economy, an economy that articulates governance, infrastructure, and technical capacity, ensuring that the mobilization of resources effectively reaches those who operate on the front line, those who operate in the forest.