“Brazil already has unique conditions for this. We have the greatest biodiversity on the planet, available degraded land, scientific knowledge…”
Tereza Campello is the Director of Social and Environmental Affairs at the Brazilian Development Bank – BNDES, economist from the Federal University of Uberlândia – UFU, researcher at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health – NUPENS/USP and a professor in the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Health at the Fiocruz School of Government.
Campello served as Brazil’s Minister of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger from 2011 to May 2016, having coordinated the Brazil Without Extreme Poverty Plan. She also coordinated the Bolsa Família Program, the National Social Assistance Policy, the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy and the Cisterns Program. Campello was awarded a Ph.D. in Public Health by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Fiocruz based on recognized expertise (notório saber) and completed postdoctoral research in Food Security at the University of Nottingham in the UK.
AgriBrasilis – Can native forest restoration be profitable in Brazil?
Tereza Campello – Yes. In fact, it already is. We are working precisely to create the conditions for this activity to achieve economic scale in Brazil. Native forest restoration is a developing sector that is capital-intensive and has long investment cycles. Its profitability therefore depends on combining different revenue streams with appropriate financial instruments.
Carbon is one of these revenue streams, but it is not the only one. There are also agroforestry systems, sustainable timber production using native species, forest management, ecotourism through park concessions, bioeconomy products and other environmental services.
ProFloresta+ illustrates one of these possibilities. Its first phase combined 25-year contracts for the purchase of high-integrity carbon credits with access to BNDES financing. Projects were selected to supply 5 million carbon credits, providing predictable revenue for long-term investments. At the same time, instruments such as the Climate Fund offer financing with terms compatible with forest investment cycles.
Brazil has important advantages: available degraded land, technical expertise, favorable natural conditions and enormous biodiversity. The challenge is to turn these advantages into a robust economic sector.
AgriBrasilis – What is preventing forest restoration from scaling up in Brazil?
Tereza Campello – Restoration requires an entire value chain operating in a coordinated manner. It is capital-intensive and generates returns over the long term, so it requires appropriate financing. We also need to strengthen seed and seedling production, nurseries, skilled labor, technical assistance, research and technology.
Another challenge is creating predictable revenue, whether through long-term carbon contracts, agroforestry systems, sustainable timber or other environmental products and services. We also need progress in productivity, resilience, measurement, certification and the integrity of environmental assets.
BNDES Florestas, the Bank’s strategy for the sector, seeks to address these bottlenecks in an integrated manner. Financing planting alone is not enough; the market itself needs to be developed. That is why we combine credit, grants, investments and equity participation, innovation, forest concessions and mechanisms such as ProFloresta+.
We have already mobilized approximately US$ 2.7 billion for this forest-based economy, including US$ 1.58 billion in financing and US$ 1.13 billion in equity participation and investments.
AgriBrasilis – How can the Arc of Deforestation be transformed into an Arc of Restoration in practice?
Tereza Campello – This transformation is already happening. In practice, it means replacing an economic model based on degradation with one in which maintaining and restoring forests generates jobs, income and production.
This involves ecological and productive restoration, agroforestry systems, seed networks, nurseries, sustainable forest management, concessions, credit and participation by local communities.
Restaura Amazônia is one of the tools supporting this process. Using resources from the Amazon Fund, it supports restoration projects in degraded areas of the Legal Amazon and provides grants to conservation units, settlements, Indigenous lands and other strategic territories. At the same time, the Climate Fund finances private restoration projects and agroforestry systems.
It is this combination that makes restoration a concrete economic alternative to degradation.
AgriBrasilis – How do Floresta Viva, Restaura Amazônia and ProFloresta+ complement one another?
Tereza Campello – They address different parts of the same strategy.
Floresta Viva uses grants from BNDES and its partners to support ecological restoration, agroforestry systems and conservation, mobilizing companies and other institutions while directing resources to projects that often would not have access to traditional financing.
Restaura Amazônia uses resources from the Amazon Fund and focuses on restoring degraded areas in the Legal Amazon, particularly in strategic territories within the Arc of Restoration, such as conservation units, settlements and Indigenous lands.
ProFloresta+, meanwhile, operates through the market. It connects companies interested in purchasing high-integrity carbon credits with restoration project developers and allows selected projects to seek long-term financing from BNDES.
These are complementary instruments: grants, financing and market mechanisms working together under the BNDES Florestas strategy.
AgriBrasilis – Is there enough corporate demand to mobilize up to US$ 1.15 billion in carbon credit purchases through ProFloresta+?
Tereza Campello – We are holding discussions with Brazilian companies to assess their purchasing intentions and gauge demand for high-integrity carbon credits. We already have, however, an important foundation and concrete results from the first phase of ProFloresta+.
In ProFloresta+ 1, Petrobras participated as the buyer and three companies were selected to supply 5 million carbon credits generated through ecological restoration in the Amazon. The initiative is expected to mobilize approximately US$ 86.5 million in planting investments alone, enable the planting of more than 25 million native trees and generate 6,300 green jobs.
We also developed a long-term purchase agreement with socioenvironmental safeguards that could become a benchmark for the sector and provide greater certainty for buyers and investors.
With ProFloresta+ 2, we are now expanding the model to companies from different sectors of the economy. The goal is to restore up to 60 thousand hectares, capture approximately 19 million tonnes of CO₂ and reach up to US$ 1.15 billion in carbon credit purchases.
AgriBrasilis – How can you ensure that these credits lead to the permanent restoration of native forests?
Tereza Campello – This is a central aspect of ProFloresta+. We are not simply talking about generating carbon credits, but about credits originating from ecological restoration projects using native species and subject to strict integrity criteria.
In the first phase, 25-year contracts were established precisely because restoration is a long-term process. Projects must meet criteria covering environmental quality, species diversity, monitoring, certification and socioenvironmental safeguards.
This approach is maintained in ProFloresta+ 2. The long-term contract also provides developers with predictable revenue and better conditions to finance and maintain their projects over time.
The integrity of the credit therefore depends on a combination of high-quality environmental restoration, governance, monitoring and the project’s financial sustainability.
AgriBrasilis – What needs to change for Brazil to become a global leader in forest restoration?
Tereza Campello – Brazil already has unique conditions to achieve this. We have the greatest biodiversity on the planet, available degraded land, scientific knowledge and companies and organizations with experience in restoration.
The challenge is turning these advantages into scale. We need to expand long-term financing, attract private capital, develop technologies to reduce costs and increase productivity, strengthen the seed, seedling and nursery supply chain, train workers and improve monitoring and certification methodologies.
We also need to work with different economic models. Carbon is important, but restoration can also be associated with agroforestry systems, sustainable timber, forest management, concessions and bioeconomy products.
BNDES’ strategy for the sector, which we call BNDES Florestas, brings together credit, grants, capital markets, innovation, concessions and mechanisms such as ProFloresta+. Around US$ 3.8 billion is expected to be mobilized when ProFloresta+ 2 is included. The approximately US$ 2.7 billion we have already mobilized in the forest-based economy represents the restoration of 205 thousand hectares, the planting of 342 million trees and the creation of 86 thousand green jobs.
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