Brazil marks a milestone in ecosystem restoration with the first official monitoring estimates under Planaveg 2025–2028 at COP30

At COP30, Brazil presented its first consolidated national estimate of native vegetation under restoration — 3.4 million hectares of — marking a historic step toward achieving the country's goal of restoring 12 million hectares of native vegetation by 2030, under the National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Planaveg, acronym in Portuguese).

The announcement took place on 18 November during the “Agenda Restaura Brasil” event in the Brazil Pavilion – Auditório Uruçu (Green Zone), which brought together key government ministries, civil society organisations, private sector representatives, and international partners. This milestone reflects years of technical collaboration, data harmonization, and strong governance in the restoration policies and agenda.

As of 2025, an estimated 3.4 million hectares were identified as undergoing native vegetation recovery — nearly 30 percent of the national target. The estimate is the result of the first reporting cycle of the National Monitoring and Reporting System for the Recovery of Native Vegetation, developed under the coordination of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA, acronym in Portuguese) and its National Commission for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Conaveg, acronym in Portuguese) with multiple partners. This consolidated estimation confirms that restoration is advancing, placing Brazil on a solid path toward its 2030 goals.

Statement – Thiago Belote, Director, Department of Forests (Departamento de Florestas – DFLO/MMA):

"With this first report, Brazil demonstrates its ability to lead with science, transparency, and technical collaboration. We are building more than just a monitoring system — we are establishing a national infrastructure of trust that reflects the contributions of each actor in our diverse restoration ecosystem."

This technical achievement is the result of a collaborative effort between the governmental institutions and national and international partners, including key support since 2024 from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO contributes to the Spatial Intelligence and Monitoring Strategy of Planaveg 2025–2028 as a co-responsible agency for defining parameters and identifying areas under restoration (Outcome 2), as well as strengthening interoperability across public and private data systems (Outcome 5.3).

In 2025, FAO deepened this support through its Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Nature Restoration (AIM4Nature) initiative, providing technical guidance, including through organizing a technical-scientific workshop in Brasília to advance the design of Brazil’s geospatial monitoring system for native vegetation recovery, and producing a methodology and restoration area estimation report that will serve as an annex to a proposed Conaveg resolution to guide national reporting toward Brazil’s 12-million-hectare target. 

A wide network of collaborators supported Brazil in designing the monitoring and reporting methodology, organizing consultations with experts, integrating geospatial datasets, and ensuring scientific rigor. Key contributors include The Nature Conservancy Brazil (TNC - Brasil); the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis – IBAMA); the National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE); the Brazilian Forest Service (Serviço Florestal Brasileiro – SFB); the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture through the Restoration Observatory; and the Biome-based Restoration Networks — representative coalitions from each of Brazil’s six biomes, ensuring inclusivity, regional diversity, and grassroots legitimacy in the national monitoring framework.

Figure 2. Partners and collaborators involved in organizing the technical-scientific workshop in Brasília, a key step in strengthening Brazil’s geospatial monitoring system for native vegetation recovery and supporting the estimate presented at COP30.

The methodology — co-designed through extensive dialogue within CONAVEG’s Thematic Advisory Group on Geospatial Intelligence and Monitoring (CCT/GT2), involving multiple institutions and specialists — integrates three primary data layers:

1. Secondary vegetation mapped via satellite by TerraClass/INPE;
2. Areas of government-mandated restoration projects from national official systems, such as Recooperar (IBAMA);
3. Areas of voluntary restoration projects by non-governmental systems, such as the Observatory of Restoration (Observatório da Restauração).

By ensuring non-overlapping datasets, spatial consistency, and scientific rigor, this first cycle lays the groundwork for an integrated and transparent national restoration monitoring system — directly aligned with Brazil’s commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Target 2), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

As implementation of Planaveg 2025–2028 progresses, additional data from states, municipalities, civil society organizations, and the private sector will continue to refine national estimates. This milestone affirms Brazil’s growing leadership in ecosystem restoration, demonstrating that restoration is advancing and that the country has the technical capacity, institutional structures, and partnerships needed to achieve its 2030 targets, grounded in multilevel governance, scientific integrity, and a shared commitment to the future of its landscapes and people.

Statement – Yelena Finegold, Forestry Officer and Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring Thematic Lead, Forest Monitoring and Data Platforms Team, FAO:

“The collaboration between FAO and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change of Brazil, under the AIM4Nature initiative, has been instrumental in supporting the development of robust and transparent restoration monitoring systems. Brazil’s experience not only strengthens and contributes to national restoration commitments but also contributes to global commitments such as Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, offering valuable lessons and inspiration for other countries in Latin America and globally, aiming to accelerate restoration with clarity, credibility, and impact.”