Brazilian Cerrado restoration program honoured as UN world restoration flagship

A Brazilian ecosystem-scale restoration program has been honoured at a recent UN conference as one of the three most ambitious and impactful restoration efforts currently underway around the world.

The project is not in the Amazon Rainforest, but in the Cerrado, the biologically richest savannah in the world, where more plant and animal species are found than in any other savannah. Half of the Cerrado has been cleared or converted for agriculture or other uses.

The Araticum Initiative is working to reverse that trend by restoring 4.4 million acres of the Cerrado to its natural state. The effort was recently recognized with the UN’s World Restoration Flagship award.

The award is given through the UN’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration under the Convention to Combat Desertification. The initiative estimates these flagship efforts are currently restoring 44 million acres of land worldwide, with plans to address millions more in coming years.

The Araticum Initiative brings together more than 180 organizations, including indigenous peoples, local communities, farmers, researchers and government institutions, to support restoration projects across nine Brazilian states through natural regeneration, direct seeding, restoration and agroforestry with native species.