The silviculture of native species can give rise to a new forest economy in Brazil, on a scale comparable to the country’s agribusiness and forestry sectors, generating jobs, increasing carbon sequestration, and improving livelihoods in rural areas.
Launched in 2021 by the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture, the Research and Development Program for Native Species (R&DP-SNS) aims to accelerate the growth of native timber species through genetic improvement and advances in silvicultural management, as well as to offer scientific and technological solutions in seed and seedling production, wood technology, topoclimatic zoning, market, policy, and legislation.
The program involves Brazil’s leading educational and research institutions, the private sector, governments, and civil society and establishes a network of long-term research sites (LTRS Network) and research in areas called Reference Poles. Thirty native forest species from the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes will be studied.
The sites will function as permanent plots, being periodically evaluated according to standardized research protocols. Scaling up the area of silvicultural plantations and adopting practices and innovations resulting from this program will help meet the demand for tropical timber and contribute to the recovery of 12 million hectares of degraded areas by 2030.
The R&DP-SNS is currently in the resource mobilization phase with government agencies and private companies. The most recent achievement came in August 2023 when the Coalition and the Southern Bahia Scientific and Technological Park received a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund. The investment will be used to initiate the implementation of LTRS Network and studies in Reference Poles.
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