Restoration in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is finding success on private lands, according to a newly published study. Researchers evaluated the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact, a collaborative initiative launched in 2009 to accelerate reforestation, and found a 20% increase in vegetation cover on studied private lands from 2000-2018 compared to areas without intervention. The pact works across 17 Brazilian states and brings together governments, NGOs, companies and landowners to identify priority areas for restoration, support implementation, and monitor environmental, social and economic outcomes. The end goal is to restore 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of forest by 2050. “Landowners report that after starting restoration planting, springs returned, streams filled, and the land cooled,” says biologist Ludmila Pugliese de Siqueira, co-author of the new study and director of the landscape and forest restoration program at Conservation International Brazil. “For them, the result is very tangible — something that directly affects their daily lives.” The study examined 158,000 hectares (about 390,000 acres) of land, half of it restored and the rest unrestored. In all, they found a net increase in vegetation cover of 4,600 hectares (about 11,400 acres) in the form of restored forest, an area roughly 80% the size of Manhattan or 13.5 times the size of Central Park. Still, restoring forest on privately owned land in the Atlantic Forest remains a major challenge. About 75% of the biome is private property, and nearly 90% of its original vegetation, around 110 million hectares (272 million acres), has been lost to agriculture,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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