Cerrado Forest Conservation and Restoration Project

Overview

Location: Rio Verde, Goiás, Brazil

Description: This project focuses on the conservation and restoration of the Cerrado savanna ecosystem, a biodiversity hotspot. Key activities include fire management, invasive species control, and promoting sustainable land use practices.

Project Landscape

Key Features and Benefits

Environmental

• Biodiversity Hotspot Protection: The Cerrado is a biodiversity hotspot, and this project helps protect its unique flora and fauna.
• Carbon Storage: The project maintains and enhances carbon storage in Cerrado vegetation and soils.
• Watershed Protection: Healthy Cerrado ecosystems are crucial for protecting watersheds and water resources.
• Deforestation Prevention: The project actively works to prevent deforestation and habitat loss.
• Climate Change Mitigation: Conserving and restoring the Cerrado contributes to climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration.

Biodiversity

• Endangered Species Protection: The project focuses on protecting endangered Cerrado species, including plants and animals.
• Unique Plant Community Conservation: It conserves the unique plant communities that characterize the Cerrado.
• Ecological Process Maintenance: The project helps maintain essential ecological processes, such as pollination and seed dispersal.
• Habitat Connectivity: It works to enhance habitat connectivity, allowing for species movement and gene flow.
• Genetic Diversity Safeguarding: Conserving the Cerrado protects the genetic diversity of its species.

Social

• Sustainable Livelihoods: The project promotes sustainable livelihoods for local communities through ecotourism and sustainable harvesting.
• Cerrado Awareness: It raises awareness about the importance of the Cerrado biome.
• Community Involvement: Local communities are actively involved in conservation efforts.
• Stakeholder Empowerment: The project empowers local stakeholders to participate in decision-making.
• Cultural Heritage Preservation: It contributes to preserving the cultural heritage associated with the Cerrado.

Potential Impacts

Environmental

• Agricultural Expansion Conflicts: The project needs to address potential conflicts with agricultural expansion.
• Wildfire Risk: Managing wildfire risk is a key component of Cerrado conservation.
• Climate Change Impacts: The project needs to consider the impacts of climate change on the Cerrado ecosystem.
• Infrastructure Development Pressure: Balancing conservation with infrastructure development is a challenge.
• Ongoing Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of environmental conditions is essential.

Biodiversity

• Habitat Fragmentation: External pressures can lead to habitat fragmentation, which the project aims to mitigate.
• Sensitive Species Decline: The project monitors and addresses potential declines in sensitive Cerrado species.
• Invasive Species: Controlling invasive species is crucial for protecting native biodiversity.
• Altered Fire Regimes: Managing fire regimes is essential for maintaining Cerrado ecosystems.
• Biodiversity Monitoring: Ongoing monitoring of biodiversity trends is necessary.

Social

• Community Displacement: The project needs to avoid displacement of communities due to conservation efforts.
• Economic Opportunities: Creating sustainable economic opportunities for local communities is a key goal.
• Benefit Sharing: Equitable benefit sharing among stakeholders is essential.
• Conservation-Development Balance: Balancing conservation with development needs is a challenge.
• Funding Reliance: Securing long-term funding for conservation activities is crucial.

Project Metrics and Links

Metric	Description	Unit	Value
Project Start	Project initiation year	Year	2023
Area	Total project area	Hectares	10,000
Estimated CO2 Removal (10 years)	Carbon sequestration potential over 10 years	tCO2e	100,000
Estimated CO2 Removal (20 years)	Carbon sequestration potential over 20 years	tCO2e	240,000
Estimated CO2 Removal (30 years)	Carbon sequestration potential over 30 years	tCO2e	360,000
Total Estimated CO2 Removal	Total carbon sequestration potential over 30 years	tCO2e	700,000

Links:

• Digital Due Diligence:
  Link to Due Diligence Document/Platform

• B3 Green Bonds Information:
  Link to Green Bond Information

• Verra Carbon Credit Registry:
  Link to Carbon Credit Registry

Changelog

• 2024-03-17: Initial project documentation created.

Contributors

• Manuela Souza (LinkedIn Profile)