At COP15, the UN chooses the Atlantic Forest among the 10 main references in restoration

The Atlantic forest, a biome that once covered a large part of the Brazilian coast and still extends across Paraguay and Argentina, is one of the ten world references in restoration, according to the announcement made this Tuesday morning (13) by Pnuma (Programa das Environment) and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).

The event took place as part of COP15, the UN biodiversity conference, which until the next 19th aims to conclude the next global agreement on the subject, a priority for the United Nations agenda, which defined the period from 2021 to 2030 as the Decade of Restoration.

With recognition, the biome gains priority from the UN to receive funding and technical support for restoration.

“Now it is no longer about conserving what is left, but restoring to guarantee ecosystem services. Back there, there was talk of protecting endangered species, now there is this new vision about how these ecosystems guarantee water, food, and even energy in some places, in addition to sequestering carbon”, evaluates the executive director of Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto.

“This nomination helps to leverage the restoration and function of ecosystems for humanity, with a direct link between restoration, the economy and the well-being of people”, he points out.

The Atlantic Forest had already been recognized as a biodiversity “hotspot” —that is, one of the priority regions for global conservation, due to the high concentration of biological diversity and endemic species, associated with the high risk of extinction— and it has also been named as a Biosphere Reserve by Unesco.

Around 700,000 hectares have already been restored in the Atlantic Forest and the objective of the Pact for the Restoration of the Atlantic Forest is to reach 1 million hectares in 2030 and 15 million in 2050. In addition to the Pact —a network that articulates national actors for the conservation of the biome— , the goal also relies on the international efforts of the Trinational Restoration Network, concentrated in Alto Paraná, also involving Argentina and Paraguay.

According to an analysis released in November by SOS Mata Atlântica, the biome is responsible for producing 50% of the food consumed by the Brazilian population. The study also points out that the Atlantic Forest emits only 26% of greenhouse gases from the agricultural sector in the country.

To arrive at the ten reference biomes, the UN created a committee of researchers to evaluate around 20 criteria, such as the involvement of local communities in decision-making, coalition building, contribution to international emissions reduction agreements and potential for growth and replicability. Around the world, 156 initiatives applied for the title of reference in restoration (“flagship”, in the English term).

Together, the ten “flagship” restoration initiatives aim to restore more than 68 million hectares and are expected to create nearly 15 million jobs.

In addition to the Atlantic Forest, the following were chosen as references: marine restoration in Abu Dhabi; the Great Green Wall of Africa; the Ganges River in India; the mountains of Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda and Rwanda; the small islands of Vanuatu, Saint Lucia and Comoros; the Altyn Dala steppes in Central Asia; the Dry Corridor in Central America and the Shan-Shui initiative in China.

According to FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, these are the ten most ambitious, visionary and promising initiatives for ecosystem restoration.

“Transforming our relationship with nature is the key to reversing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, loss of nature and biodiversity, pollution and waste,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.

_{the report Ana Carolina Amaral traveled to Montreal at the invitation of the NGO Avaaz.}