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WeForest’s Project Manager in Brazil, Cristina Yuri Vidal, has visited, in May, areas of native trees planted in Atlantic forest biome. Reforested trees form corridors of life, that connect  rural properties to Morro do Diabo State Park, in Pontal of Paranapanema – west side of State of São Paulo. With the corridors, IPE looks to conserve species of black lion tamarins, jaguars, tapirs, and others.

Visiting is a way to check the work developed by IPE, who receives resources from WeForest to invest in the Dream Map . 

Guided by the map created by its researchers, IPE’s goal in the long-term is to reforest 60 thousand acres in Pontal of Paranapanema. There is 3,000 acres to begin with and 900 acres were reforested using resources raised by WeForest.

The partnership between WeForest and IPE started 7 years ago. Read more here. Regarding the future, Cristina believes there are great expectation to the project’s continuity, since one of the characteristics of WeForest is to invest in long-term jobs. 

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WeForest, a non-profit organization based in Belgium, raises funds from large companies and invests in restoration projects carried out by NGOs. In America, Brazil is the only country to be contemplated, while in Africa there are several countries and, at the moment, there is a finalizing project in India.

The proposal is the resource to be send to structured organizations with solid projects to establish the partnership. Together, partner and organization, outline the number of hectares to be reforested, and the restoration ways (whether they are going to use Permanent Protection Areas – PPA or agroforestry).

In the evaluation of the WeForest project manager, Cristina Vidal, in Pontal, the restoration chain goes beyond the environmental role, as it can also involve economic and social factors and the gender issue with the integration of women in the workforce, many of them are actually leading nurseries. Such benefits demonstrate that restoration brings improvements to the fauna, flora and preservation of water resources, and even goes beyond nature’s bias by also benefiting male and female labor and promoting life quality. “The work with IPÊ goes far beyond the planted hectares because these native Atlantic Forest seedlings came from nurseries that include the work of dozens of families. This impact of going beyond restoration itself (biological and ecological) is a combination that WeForest is keen to look at”, she points out.

In Brazil, in the evaluation of WeForest, IPÊ has a strong presence, it is one of the big NGOs with diversified projects in the regions: Pontal do Paranapanema, Nazaré Paulista, Baixo Rio Negro, Pantanal and Cerrado. Specifically in Pontal, according to her, the institution is known by the society for its responsible operation, which facilitates access to rural landowners, who provides portions of their land to be reforested and form corridors of life.

The New Forest Code in the state of São Paulo determines that rural properties must preserve or restore 20% of their area with Legal Reserve and Riparian Forest (protection of water resources). However, according to Cristina, it is not an easy task to convince large and small producers to apply the law on their land. “Getting areas for restoration is one of the bottlenecks of any environmental project, as much as the law requires, obtaining authorization to restore is not a simple job. And that is what IPÊ has done masterfully in the Pontal region”, she stresses. And it goes on.” In addition to getting the areas for planting, the institution built an entire production chain which involved the creation of nurseries, training of nurseries (seed collection, production and seedlings sales), and also the companies that make the planting and management of seedlings. At last, IPÊ is a very strong partner”, she reinforces.

Investment in Research

According to Vidal, WeForest also invests in scientific research. Currently, part of the resources are allocated in studies on the Newfor project – along with researchers from the Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ).

In the region, researchers are studying the planted and its remaining forests. “As WeForest invests in restoration, it is also interesting to invest in research, since the study is exactly in the restored forests where the institution invests”, she explains.

According to the project manager, the institution finances Lidar flights that read the vegetation structure. Also it is planned to start in the first half of 2022 the financing for the installation of an audio recorder in the areas where Newfor reads the vegetation. The expectation is to record which animals live in the restored forests and native fragments. This proposal came from Laury Cullen Jr., project coordinator at IPÊ, to expand a project (in progress) with resources from CTG Brasil. “I believe it will be an interesting complement in the research area that will draw an overview of the forests in Pontal”.

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The study is part of a research project seeking to evaluate the results of actions for restoration and conservation of the Atlantic Forest at Pontal do Paranapanema. With the data at hand, researchers will analyze how effective the actions were in regards to animals and identify management initiatives that contribute to the region.

The research belongs to a wider project called “Development of simplified procedures for monetary-economic valuation of ecosystem services and non-monetary valuation of cultural ecosystem services related to forest restoration”, a partnership of IPÊ with CTG Brasil, a clean energy company, through a R&D project from ANEEL.

Heading the Biodiversity branch of the Project is Simone Tenório and the general manager is Laury Cullen, both researchers at IPÊ.

To identify the fauna present in the region, the researchers Rafael Souza Cruz Alvez and Claudia Zukeram Kanda (pictured) installed 60cm high trap cameras around tree trunk.

“This way it is possible to grasp if mammals are moving through the restored areas, and if they actually use the area for survival”, says Claudia.

By analyzing the presence of animals, the researchers will be able to evaluate the advances in conservation related to the ecosystem services rendered by them. “The animals will help keep the health of ecosystems and productive areas, contributing to pest control”, stated Rafael Souze Cruz Alvez. 

An example for this is the Brazilian Tapir (Tapirus terrestris), considered the forest gardener due to how it scatters seed with greater germination potential. Forests inhabited by tapirs have a greater diversity of trees, for they move great distances inside their habitat and also between forest fragments (around 500 hectares – or 500 soccer fields). “Areas with tapirs have woods and riparian forests of higher quality, and, therefore, more preserved. This restoration will lead to better water quality, as it reduces soil runoff (particulate organic matter in the water)”.

Three study scenarios

In the study with mammals, 37 areas are analyzed in 3 scenarios: in conservated fragments, in restored fragments, and in the biggest restored forest corridor in the biome, connecting two conservation units, the Parque Estadual Morro do Diabo and the Estação Ecológica Mico-Leão-Preto. Each area will be monitored for two months, during three cycles, resulting in six months of image capturing.

During the installation of the cameras, the researchers found traces, such as tracks and feces of Brazilian tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), cougars (Puma concolor), and ocelots (Leopardus pardalis).  

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The “Dream Map” emerged from the IPÊ team’s desire to plant native trees of the Atlantic Forest in rural properties located in Pontal do Paranapanema, far west of São Paulo, so that the planted forests connect to the native fragments and form corridors of life. Such corridors are essential for the conservation of species such as the black lion tamarin (Lentopithecus chrysopygus), the jaguar (Panthera onca), the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), among others. The dream is that the corridors have 60,000 hectares of forests (the environmental liabilities of the region), and 3,000 hectares are already a reality. In the next 5 years, the proposal is to plant 5,000 hectares.

According to Laury Cullen, project coordinator and researcher at IPÊ, the Dream Map is the flagship of the projects carried out in Pontal do Paranapanema (SP). “The team of technicians breathes this map daily. It is even stamped on the wall of the meeting room, because it is our mission, ambition and long-term vision for the region”, he says.

The map is the rescue of the Atlantic Forest, the possibility of bringing the forest back, since the Atlantic Forest Act (2006) based on the New Forest Code (Federal Law N°.12,651/2012, BRASIL) requires that each rural property have 20% forest.

Among the results of the Dream Map is the largest restored forest corridor in the Atlantic Forest (with 12 km and 2.4 million trees), allowing for the flow of fauna from one fragment to another in the Atlantic Forest, contributing to the survival of vulnerable and endangered species.

In Pontal, these 20% of forest can be divided between the areas of Legal Reserve and riparian forest (protection of water resources) – in properties cut by rivers, streams and springs – as long as it adds up to the 20% required by law. “Many farms already have their forests conserved with the percentage established in the legislation,” Cullen says.

Given this panorama, the Dream Map aims exactly at the 400 rural properties that have not adapted to the New Forest Code so far. The proposal of the map is to allocate the 20% of forests of each rural property in the best possible way for the formation of life corridors. For example, by assuring that the reserve of “farm A”, connects to “farm B” which is linked to the settlements, consequently, this connectivity connects the corridors to the native forest of Morro do Diabo State Park, an area with about 34,000 hectares of native forest.

In Cullen’s assessment, these corridors of life are a way to ensure the long-term survival of various animals, including the endangered black lion tamarin. He explains that after a while, isolated animals in the forest of “farm A” begin to have serious demographic and genetic problems. Therefore, it is extremely important to move these animals, because the circulation allows the crossing of the animals of the “farm A” with the animals that inhabit morro do Diabo. “Not only the corridors offer this alternative to the animals, it is also fundamental for the dispersion of seeds. And we already have tangible results of this work, exemplified by the Brazilian tapirs (Tapirus terrestris). They use the corridors and are seed dispersers, and so plant species have been identified germinating in their fecal samples.”

According to Cullen, the map provides suggestions for the landowner to restore the forest in order to generate numerous benefits. “Among these consequences, we have the conservation of water resources (water quality, erosion and silting prevention), the connection of forest fragments, and protection of the fragments from the so-called edge effect, when the forests are exposed to wind, light, fire, and desiccation and, consequently, lose quality.”

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