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To save the world’s rainforests, we must do two fundamental things: first, stop destroying them. Second, start restoring them. Reforestation is one of the pillars of preserving forests like the Brazilian Amazon, but until now, projects have not been on the scale required for a colossal challenge. It is estimated that in Brazil alone, over the last 40 years, 117 million hectares of native vegetation (the size of Bolivia) have been lost, according to data from Mapbiomas.
Reforestation projects still fall far short of making up for the damage done and are usually linked to hardworking volunteers who plant trees in worthy but isolated initiatives, or in public programs that generally operate intermittently, depending on budgets and political priorities of the moment. There is a lack of continuity and above all a lack of scope.
To break this dynamic, four years ago in Brazil, Re.green was born, a company that seeks to restore one million hectares of the country’s jungle (an area equivalent to the size of Jamaica) in 15 years, but in a profitable and sustainable way in the long term. The initiative recently won the Earthshot Prize, promoted by England’s Prince William, one of the world’s most visible environmental advocates. The company was founded by prestigious Brazilian forest scientists and engineers, such as researcher Bernando Strassburg, one of the promoters of the National Restoration Plan, and Ricardo Rodrigues, coordinator of the Forest Ecology and Restoration Laboratory at the University of São Paulo (USP). But it is managed by financial market experts, such as its own CEO, Thiago Picolo, who, during an interview with América Futura, clarified that this is not the umpteenth philanthropic operation intended to save the world.
“We understand that restoring the jungle with quality can generate very attractive and interesting, more competitive returns, and that by generating returns we attract capital, and by attracting capital we achieve scale. A rainforest brings a lot of value and many services to society. Our mission is to fully monetize that,” he explained.
For activists who disapprove of the language of money tied to trees, Picolo has an answer: We live in capitalism, and we need to find a formula so that the forest is worth more in money standing than in money cut down for livestock.
The company works in both the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, a lesser-known jungle outside of Brazil, but even more punished. It is the biome that predominates in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and is so called because historically it bordered the entire coast of the country. This is where, during the colonial era, the destruction began. Today, only 24% of its original surface remains, although the good news is that, unlike the Amazon, deforestation has been almost completely eradicated. It’s time to restore.
Re.green works with two types of reforestation: in 90% of the territories where it is present, it involves recreating the original jungle, planting more than 80 species of native trees and shrubs, always with meticulous preliminary studies on the most suitable species, the pace of planting and the necessary support. This type of format makes money primarily through the sale of carbon credits to large companies that use them to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. At the moment, the top three customers are important: Vivo, Nestlé and Microsoft. Later it is also planned to exploit other active ingredients, such as plant extracts for the cosmetic industry, nuts, chestnuts and other fruits.
Faced with criticism of the carbon market for its lack of efficiency and transparency, the company ensures that the initiatives are registered in Verra, in the area of Carbon standard verified (VCS) and can be consulted in its public registry. Additionally, Re.Green projects have been rated AAe in the Atlantic Forest and Ae in the Amazon by BeZero Carbon, a leading voluntary market rating agency.
The other way is forestry, although it does not consist, as usual, of planting rows of eucalyptus trees and cutting them down shortly afterwards. A jungle is planted with trees of five to ten native species of commercial value and, within 20 years, the finest specimens of wood are cut down. This format only occupies 10% of the area managed by Re.green, but it is essential to make reforestation economically viable, particularly on the most expensive land, generally closer to roads and where this type of operation is viable.
Picolo believes that the forest restoration sector in Brazil has everything to grow: because of the urgency imposed by climate change and because the amount of unproductive land is immense. Brazil has more than 90 million hectares of abandoned or degraded pastures, with very few livestock occupying huge areas: low efficiency and little yield. The potential is obvious, believes the head of Re.Green, who emphasizes that even if there is a lot of land, you have to be very careful. The company acts by purchasing private land or public concessions to restore part of a natural park for example, and cross-references dozens of databases to certify that the land belongs to who it claims to be. The problem of grillheirosinvaders who appropriate public lands are at the origin of most environmental crimes committed in the Amazon. This is why we must also protect ourselves so that forest restoration does not generate undesirable effects. “An incentive could be created: first you deforest and then you receive money to replant. This is why our projects are only eligible to generate carbon credits if they are land deforested more than ten years ago, so as not to benefit those who deforested. This is the golden rule,” he says.
During the COP30 climate conference held in November in Belém do Pará, in the heart of the Amazon, tropical forests were at the center of climate debates. They are major carbon sinks and their future is essential to stopping global warming. As part of the summit, the Brazilian government presented the most recent data on plant restoration: there are currently more than three million hectares of native vegetation recovering, although the majority are forests spontaneously recovering lost land. The recovery encouraged by man would be of the order of 200,000 hectares, according to the Restoration Observatory. This is growth of 158% in three years. Experts attribute this to public incentives and the government initiative launched in 2023 and known as “Ark for Restoration”, which aims to recover the Amazon region, where 75% of logging is concentrated.
While trees are being planted, progress is also being made in policies to ensure the survival of those still alive. The destruction of the Brazilian Amazon decreased by 22% last year and the government remains firm in its promise to eradicate illegal deforestation by 2030. By then, the territory in the recovery phase is also expected to increase fourfold, to 12 million hectares.
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