Brazil to present program to restore degraded areas at COP30
The Productive Forests Initiative combines environmental restoration and income generation for rural families
247 - The Brazilian government will present the National Productive Forests Program at COP30, which will take place in Belém (PA) between November 10 and 21. This is one of the country's main initiatives on the climate and sustainable development agenda.
Coordinated by the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA), the program aims to recover degraded areas for productive purposes, promote the environmental regularization of family farming, and expand the production of healthy foods and socio-biodiversity products.
This initiative is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement, signed by 195 countries in 2015, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within a sustainable development model.
According to the executive secretary of the MDA, Fernanda Machiaveli, the program integrates environmental and social objectives, combining forest restoration, food security, and income generation.
“We needed to address the issue of land regularization and, at the same time, offer an alternative that would generate income for families in maintaining the forests. This is what motivated the creation of the Productive Forests program, which promotes the restoration and recovery of altered or degraded areas, but in a productive way, based on the principles of regenerative agriculture,” says Machiaveli.
The target audience includes family farmers, land reform settlers, and traditional peoples and communities. In addition to encouraging sustainable agri-food production, the program also contributes to the fulfillment of Brazil's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which foresee the recovery of 12 million hectares by 2030 through the National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation (Planaveg).
Practical demonstrations during COP30
During the event, the government intends to present projects from the program to international delegations, showcasing concrete results of the public policy and encouraging cooperation between tropical countries.
“In our proposed collaborative action plan, one of the initiatives is Productive Forests. It's an alliance between countries that have tropical forests for the preservation of these forests, through the implementation of co-associated systems,” explained Machiaveli.
The idea is to transform the program into a showcase of sustainable technologies, demonstrating how Brazil can reconcile environmental recovery, food production, and income generation.
Sustainable agri-food production and social inclusion
The Productive Forests program will be structured based on Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER), in addition to specific credit lines, such as Pronaf Floresta, whose financing limit has been increased from R$ 80 to R$ 100, with a reduction in the interest rate from 4% to 3% per year.
The program also includes the establishment of community nurseries, which will house seed banks and seedling cultivation, and Popular Technological Reference Units, which will function as demonstration areas for training rural families.
“One of the initiatives involves the reference units for agroforestry systems, where a structure is implemented that the entire community can visit and use, serving as inspiration for them to replicate the systems in their own areas. There is also technical assistance that accompanies this entire process,” Machiaveli highlighted.
Furthermore, the program is implementing the Forest Houses, training spaces focused on the exchange of experiences and dissemination of sustainable practices, in partnership with Embrapa.
Investments and goals
The program has already received R$ 150 million in investments from the Amazon Fund for the period of 2025 to 2029. The resources will finance actions in the states of Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Pará, and Maranhão, benefiting 6 families in 80 agrarian reform settlements and recovering 4,6 hectares of degraded areas.
The funding comes from the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
