CONTEXT

Among the nine states of the Legal Amazon, Pará contributed the most for the accumulated deforestation in the region (INPE / Prodes). In light of the Forest Code, Pará has a forest deficit estimated at 3.3 million hectares. Therefore, the promotion of environmental regularization in Pará, besides being a legal imperative, will contribute to the national restoration commitments, aiming at the restoration of at least 12 million hectares in Brazil by 2030.

In research on the subject of restoration, Imazon found that the advance of forest restoration will require overcoming some barriers, such as: (i) farmers' perception that it is an expensive, complex and bureaucratic process; (ii) lack of adequate technical assistance; (iii) lack of technical capacity to conduct forest restoration processes; (iv) difficulty in accessing financing for restoration; and (v) lack of leadership and governance on the theme of forest restoration in the Amazon.

Today, Pará has an information base and a set of partners for forest restoration. However, it is necessary to connect these components so that forest restoration becomes a reality. In the project, forest restoration actions will be implemented, providing a basis for overcoming the barriers and seeking to scale up the environmental regularization.

The area of direct action of the project (east of Pará) is part of the Amazon deforestation arc. The municipalities of Paragominas, Ulianópolis and Dom Eliseu were part of the Ministry of Environment’s list of municipalities with critical deforestation and managed to get out of it, controlling deforestation and advancing in the Rural Environmental Registry.

THE PROJECT

The "Forest Forever" project has the main objective of contributing to the advancement of the environmental adequacy of rural properties in the Legal Amazon. In order to achieve this objective, properties will be selected to be restored from the project support, in order to demonstrate the operationalization of restoration models adhering to the aptitudes of rural properties and their users, as well as to the Amazonian landscape

In addition, a forest restoration training program will be implemented, with the training of 100 multiplier agents, who can scale the forest restoration in Pará and region. In conjunction with the environmental and technical advisory bodies, the project will monitor the areas under restoration, combining remote monitoring technologies and field surveys. Opportunities for furthering forest restoration will also be identified, including cost-benefit analyzes, new financial arrangements and technical assistance that could make forest restoration more attractive.

INTERVENTION LOGIC

This project falls under the "Sustainable Production" (1) and "Science, Innovation and Economic Instruments" (4) components of the logical framework of the Amazon Fund.

Click on the following image to view its objectives tree, that is, how the project's outputs and linked to the expected outcomes and impact.

ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED

36 Environmental Commitment Agreements (TCA) were signed with small rural landowners of up to four fiscal modules. The 36 properties received assessments of their environmental status, identifying areas deforested in 2008, the condition of the property in 2021, and the environmental liability (information necessary for the property to comply with the Forest Code). It is worth highlighting that in the diagnosis prepared by Imazon for each property, a survey of areas undergoing natural regeneration is conducted. For all properties that joined the project, 281 hectares in the process of natural regeneration were identified.

Technical and operational support was also provided for the implementation of Agroforestry Systems (SAFs) in 26.7 hectares, along with a total of 5,600 seedlings of Amazonian forest species, and fertilization.

To contribute to the environmental management of the municipalities covered by the project, studies and assessments of vegetation cover were conducted in Paragominas, Ulianópolis, and Dom Eliseu, with the following results: a) 525 rural properties analyzed, with 13,000 hectares of riparian APP (Permanent Preservation Areas) to be restored; and b) 99 rural properties analyzed, with 16,900 hectares undergoing natural regeneration for more than 5 years.

Technical Cooperation Agreements (ACT) were signed with the municipal governments of Paragominas, Ulianópolis, and Dom Eliseu, outlining the role of the cooperating parties in accordance with the products/services of the Floresta para Sempre (Forest Forever) Project. The agreements include, among other obligations, the sharing of data, the generation of information, technical monitoring by the municipal environmental agency, and participation in training events.

Fifteen awareness events, including seminars and webinars, were held with the participation of 2,587 people. Additionally, three videos with project information were produced and made available on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok.

Regarding the course "Forest Restoration Training," 34 family farmers and 72 extension technicians were trained.

To monitor forest restoration areas, the FloreSer4 system, developed by IMAZON, was updated. The data on natural regeneration in the Amazon biome is publicly accessible. Data and maps were also produced for the 36 small properties that joined the project. Workshops on the use of the FloreSer platform to support the remote monitoring of areas with secondary vegetation were held in the municipalities of Paragominas and Ulianópolis, in Pará.

As part of the forest restoration promotion strategy, the project carried out: i) the compilation of information gathered from banks and investors who signal commitment and/or support for forest restoration; ii) the collection of primary field data from the 36 plots supported by component 1; iii) analyses of forest restoration opportunities through assisted natural regeneration; iv) preliminary analyses of opportunities related to the bioeconomy of forest restoration – territory certification for the carbon market, SAFs, seedling production, etc.; and v) participation in technical events to share results, gather information, and identify successful or promising cases of forest restoration promotion.