Corridors for Life: Improving Livelihoods and Connecting Forests in Brazil

Carefully designed, the project aims at:

1. Restoring large areas in private lands to promote connectivity between forest fragments and protected areas in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

2. Promoting the occupation of the restored and connected areas by the local fauna

3. Promoting the change in land use practices of small and largescale farmers in rural fragmented areas

4. Improving small farmers’ livelihoods and

5. Providing investors a return in the form of high-quality carbon offsets.

Nature-based solutions involve three types of actions, which may be combined at regional and local level:

1. Preserving the integrity and good ecological status of ecosystems

2. Improving sustainable management of ecosystems used by human activities

3. Restoring degraded ecosystems or creating ecosystems.

This project addresses all three above types of actions combining landscape restoration, community involvement and biodiversity conservation. With the support with several national and international partners, has accomplished the main following objectives:

1. Implemented the largest forest corridor in Brazil

2. Planted over 4 million native trees

3. Produced 6 million seedlings in community-based nurseries

4. Generated approximately £ 2 million of local income through restoration services and seedling production

5. Delivered 180,600 tons of carbon or 667,800 tons of CO2 equivalent offsets

6. Created over 8,000 ha of new protected areas

7. Protected 45,000 ha of important habitats for endemic and endangered species such as the black lion tamarins, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, tapirs and over 200 species of birds and bats.

This programme is now leading to replication of good practices and public policies, complying with the National Forest Code and national policies for biodiversity conservation in Brazil.

This funding is strategic in helping the project to continue and consolidating conservation strategies that represent Nature Based Solutions (NBS) within a “productive landscapes”.

If funded, will lead to replication of good practices and policies, complying with the Brazilian National Forest Code and biodiversity conservation.

This NBS project fits with IPÊ’s integrated action model, developed through years of experience, that combines research, environmental education, habitat restoration, community involvement with sustainable development, landscape conservation and policymaking.

Also, is in line with IPÊs mission that is to “develop and disseminate innovative models for biodiversity conservation that promote socio-economic benefits through science, education and sustainable business”.

Project Impact

This solution is demonstrating an integrated series of widely replicable biodiversity friendly and economically viable land use alternatives for smallholder settlements in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Barriers to biodiversity conservation are being removed within the productive landscape, a highly threatened and biologically significant ecoregion stretching from northeast Brazil to Paraguay.

Along with the above overarching objective of the solution, as a result, we are already witnessing the following achievements and key targets to sustainable landscapes:

1. Sustainable livelihood alternatives, for a more sustainable use of the forest and its products and for forest rehabilitation and species conservation

2. Viable mechanisms for forest maintenance and rehabilitation that generates income for low income settlers

3. Conservation and management of black lion tamarins, a key primate, flagship for the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

4. Awareness and understanding, among direct and indirect stakeholders, of the full value of this forest and its biodiversity to Brazilian society

5. New systems of landscape management that balance socio-economic gains with the maintenance of ecosystem services and the conservation of threatened species

6. Empowerment of local community and stakeholders, creating a more participatory process for sustainable development in the region.

Project Timeline

• Year 01 to 05: CLIMATE: restore 5000 ha in new forest corridors and agroforestry, offsetting 1.000,000 tons of CO2 equivalent. Project staff will provide insights to experts and practitioners with project development, greenhouse gases assessment and carbon market experience in forest restoration, protection and management to help identify barriers and opportunities to significantly scale up the contribution of these activities to tackling global climate change.

• Year 01 to 05: COMMUNITIES: direct employ 1000 people and generate approximately £ 8.000,000of local income through restoration services, seedling production and biodiversity monitoring. Reforestation projects can be an important component of ensuring the well-being of the planet in coming decades.

• Year 01 to 05: BIODIVERSITY: in partnership with Rainforest Connection (RFCx) technology, monitor and protect 5000 ha of restoration sites. Species-specific identification pattern recognition models will be created for 100 species in order to identify the presence (relative abundance or occupancy) of a species in restoration areas.