El gobierno de Brasil auctioned public lands for the first time to reforest the Amazon, granting a concession to the startup Re.green. The project aims to finance the recovery of degraded areas through the sale of carbon credits, in an attempt to transform decades of deforestation into conservation opportunities.
The concession covers 58,700 hectares in the Bom Futuro reserve, with a 40-year contract. Re.green offered a commission of 0.7% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits, which is estimated to reach 2 million dollars annually.
Reforestation and local communities
Re.green is part of a group of startups that buy degraded lands to replant native species. In this case, the initiative includes the participation of the Karitiana indigenous community, who live in the area and will be part of the project.
The Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, celebrated the measure: “We are managing to turn something extremely negative for the climate, biodiversity, and local populations into something positive”.
The Amazonian challenge
The Amazon rainforest faces a critical crisis:
- Accumulated deforestation: between 2001 and 2020, more than 54.2 million hectares were lost.
- Main causes: livestock expansion, intensive agriculture (soy), illegal logging, and mining.
- Impact of fires: in 2024, 1.9 million hectares were lost due to fires exacerbated by droughts and the El Niño phenomenon.
- Political variability: deforestation rates fluctuate according to enforcement policies; the government of Lula da Silva seeks to reduce illegal deforestation by 2030.
- Most affected regions: the state of Pará historically concentrates the greatest loss of tree cover.
- Forest degradation: selective damage exceeds clear-cutting in area, making satellite monitoring difficult.
The carbon market as a tool
Researchers argue that stopping deforestation is no longer enough: it is necessary to reforest vast areas to prevent an irreversible transformation into a degraded biome.
Brazil’s emerging carbon market is attracting interest from private investors and credit entities. The auction was a test to assess whether this model can work on a large scale and help the country meet its goal of reforesting 30 million acres by 2030.
Although a second parcel of Bom Futuro received no bids, authorities consider the outcome positive and plan to offer 300,000 hectares under this model by 2027. In total, 1.3 million hectares of protected areas needing restoration have been mapped.
The concession granted to Re.green sets a precedent in Brazil’s environmental policy, integrating private financing, carbon credits, and community participation. The challenge will be to scale this model to reverse decades of deforestation and ensure that the Amazon, which harbors 30% of the planet’s biodiversity, remains a pillar of global climate stability.
