Brazil’s INDC Restoration and Reforestation Target

Brazil has 12 percent of the global forest area, being the second largest forest area in the world (4,935,380 km2).Robust efforts by multiple government agencies have contributed to the reduction of annual deforestation rates in the Amazon by nearly 80 percent since 2004, to the lowest levels recorded since annual recordkeeping began in the late 1980s.The Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL), or Forest Code, created in 1934 and last modified in 2012, was established to protect natural vegetation in forest and non-forest biomes, conserve biological diversity, protect water resources, and prevent soil erosion on private lands. The law established Areas of Permanent Protection (APP), and stipulates a minimum proportion of native vegetation to be conserved as a Legal Reserve. APPs are mandatory on hilltops, steep slopes, coastal shrublands, mangroves, wetlands, around springs, and along watercourses and reservoirs.The legal mandate to reforest or recover natural non-forest vegetation in Brazil is closely aligned with several international conventions and commitments focusing on biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, especially the Aichi Target 15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD),and national climate mitigation commitments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Land-use targets are an important component of Brazil's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) under the recent (2015) Paris agreement under the UNFCCC.Recovery of forest vegetation provides many social, economic, and environmental benefits, even if all of the qualities and components of the original forests are ultimately not restored.A major economic benefit of forest restoration is the development of supply chains for tree-planting activities and plantation maintenance, which generates employment and business opportunities.Forest restoration also provides increased protection (insurance) against flooding, landslides and other extreme climate events, with incalculable benefits for human life and wellbeing.