Background

In the heart of Brazil, a range of savannah, forest and grassland habitats make up the Cerrado, one of the world’s richest and most endangered areas of biodiversity. This biodiversity hotspot is home to 5% of all the species on the planet, with over 40% of these found nowhere else. However, the Cerrado is rapidly disappearing in the face of rising pressures on land use. The Cerrado provides almost half of Brazil’s fresh water and stores approximately 13.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is equivalent to Brazil’s total emissions over nine years.

Scope Of Work

The aim of the project is to scale up forest landscape restoration and promote innovation in the Cerrado. New opportunities for investment to upscale forest landscape restoration beyond supply chains and borders, including bankable projects, co-investments, and institutional arrangements, will be identified and implemented. The experience of companies working on the ground will provide valuable contributions and lessons learned to be shared with other relevant stakeholders. Communities and smallholders will be directly engaged in protecting, restoring and enhancing areas of degraded and damaged rainforest, prioritizing areas that connect existing forest fragments, creating larger contiguous forest areas and biodiversity corridors. A long term vision for biodiversity conservation in the landscape will also be developed, including strengthening protected areas and building capacity for protection and monitoring.