Writing in Portuguese for Agência FAPESP, reporter Elton Alisson covers a talk in Leiden by ecologist Ricardo Viani of the Federal University of São Carlos. Viani warns that treating forest restoration as carbon storage alone can harm biodiversity, water regulation and pollination. Brazil has pledged to restore 12 million hectares by 2030, yet a study of more than 1,000 Atlantic Forest plantings found only 423 tree species in use, under 8% of those in the biome.

Projects favour fast-growing pioneers, so restored areas resemble each other more than nearby native forest. In Cerrado studies, carbon returned close to original levels while plant diversity stayed lower. Only 13 of 111 studies measured both. For freethinkers it shows why a headline metric needs checking against the wider evidence.

Source: Elton Alisson, Agência FAPESP (Portuguese) (2026-11-04)

Summarised by the FTI newsdesk.