Innovative forest conservation program in Brazil yeilds environmental and agricultural benefits
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EmailBrazil's Projeto Conexão Mata Atlântica, which gives landowners incentives to conserve and restore private forests and fields, is working.
A groundbreaking study evaluating Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Connection Project, which gives landowners incentives to conserve and restore, reveals that the program has significantly improved native forest regeneration and pasture quality on private rural properties across the ecosystem.
Launched in 2017 through a partnership between the Brazilian government, multiple states, and the Global Environmental Facility, the project was designed to incentivize landowners to conserve and restore native vegetation and adopt more sustainable land-use practices. Now, new findings show that the program's dual schemes—focused on forest protection and improved land productivity—are producing real, measurable outcomes.
The study was published in this week’s Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation.
Researchers found that properties participating in the program’s “protection” scheme showed an additional average increase of 1 hectare of native vegetation cover compared to non-participating lands. Meanwhile, properties under the “multiple-use” scheme experienced 7 to10% lower rates of pasture degradation, a crucial metric for agricultural sustainability.
“These results show the power of well-structured environmental incentives to drive ecological restoration and economic co-benefits,” said Ramon Bicudo, lead researcher of the study. “Programs like this not only help protect one of the world’s most threatened biomes but also support rural livelihoods by enhancing the productivity of existing farmland.”
Bicudo is with Michigan State University’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability and the State University of Campinas, Brazil.
The study, which applied a robust propensity score matching method to over 19,000 properties in São Paulo state, also found that the cost per hectare of forest restoration under the project was significantly lower than market averages, demonstrating the financial efficiency of public-private collaboration in environmental policy.
Beyond measurable ecological gains, the program has demonstrated high levels of landowner engagement, with over 90% of participants meeting or exceeding their conservation action plans, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The findings arrive at a critical time, as Brazil continues to grapple with deforestation, climate change, and the legal obligation to restore millions of hectares of native vegetation. The authors call for broader adoption and scaling of payment for ecosystem service programs as part of Brazil’s national strategy for sustainability.
In addition to Bicudo, the publication was written by James Millington, Yue Dou, Andres Vina and Jianguo “Jack” Liu, who all are currently or formerly with MSU-CSIS.
