Biological-corridor restoration
ITPA · Rio de Janeiro
Rebuilding an Atlantic Forest corridor on a former sugarcane farm.
With ITPA (Instituto Terra de Preservação Ambiental), MORFO is restoring 18 hectares of Atlantic Forest at Fazenda das Palmas, in Vassouras, Rio de Janeiro state, re-establishing a biological corridor on land cleared for sugarcane long ago.
- Biome
- Atlantic Forest
- Size
- 18 ha
- Status
- Under restoration
The land was a sugarcane farm cleared long ago, likely before 1985, now holding shrubs, invasive and non-invasive grasses and remaining eucalyptus, on erosion-prone slopes. The aim is to re-establish a biological corridor, hold the erosion and bring back biodiversity and water function.
Delivered with ITPA, who prepared the land and handled the manual planting.
Diagnose the terrain
Terrain diagnosis in August 2023, with community engagement on local seed networks.
Prepare and plant
ITPA prepared the land and manually planted seedlings on five of the eighteen hectares, over a seven-day first planting phase in October 2023.
Monitor for decades
Field visits, drone imagery and satellite tracking, four times a year for the first two years, then twice a year for the following thirty.
Aug 2023
Project initiation and terrain diagnosis.
Oct 2023Last updated
First planting phase over seven days; five hectares manually planted by ITPA.
ITPA's founder Mauricio Ruiz has been rebuilding this forest with the surrounding villages for 25 years. This film follows that work, and the drone seeding MORFO brings to it.
ITPA (Instituto Terra de Preservação Ambiental). Community engagement with surrounding villages on seed networks.
Re-establishing a biological corridor: erosion held on the slopes, biodiversity and water function returning as the forest reconnects.
Turn degraded land into a project that holds.
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