Anauá, Brazil

The Anauá Nursery has committed itself to the production of native tree seedlings to foster the reforestation of Brazil’s Atlantic forest – a heavily deforested area. After 15 years of successfully adopting sustainable growing practices and applying a truly green commercial model, the nursery now plans to expand whilst upscaling regenerative agroforestry.

Together with reNature, a project will be launched to implement agroforestry practice at scale to support the current threatened local biodiversity and build an economically viable model.

Counteracting massive deforestation

Brazil’s Atlantic Forest has been (and still is) subject to massive deforestation. 85 percent of its original extent have been lost over the decades. The Anauá nursery is situated in an area known for its high biodiversity, but it is under threat through deforestation. In order to counteract these detrimental developments, the nursery aims to preserve endangered species and foster reforestation on a large scale. A productive, viable and scaleable regenerative agroforestry model is needed centered around growing local species.

Together with the Anauá Nursery, reNature will develop a Model School program to facilitate the necessary capacity-building to fine-tune and upscale the existing pilot agroforestry system. The focus will lie on promoting native, productive as well as endangered species, in line with the nursery’s objectives.

Objective

The underlying objective is to replace dairy production areas with agroforestry systems by investing in high-quality production technologies at scale and accelerating soil and ecosystem regeneration processes. The upscaled plot will serve as a pilot area to engage and empower producers locally and nationwide.

Impacts on people, planet, and prosperity

Scaling up agroforestry to a plot of 200 ha will bring considerable benefits for local biodiversity, the soil and the microclimate. Further, the nursery places a special focus on rescuing and studying threatened and native species of economic value. This is especially relevant as it is located in the highly endangered biome of the Atlantic Forest.

This project will provide local job opportunities, whilst supporting the nursery through the economic benefits of regenerative agroforestry (e.g. income diversification and economic resilience). The agroforestry system will center around the production of cocoa, coffee & timber as a viable financial business model.

The Anauá Nursery focuses specifically on hiring farm staff from deprived families. It cooperates with local organisations supporting minorities or disadvantaged groups in society such as MST, Quilombola, and indigenous people from the region. The upscaling of agroforestry will enable more people to be hired, whilst the system itself will provide additional social benefits such as cleaner water and increased recreational value.

Creating awareness across the supply chain

In applying sustainable and regenerative production techniques, The Anauá Nursery will also start to involve the entire supply chain. This will trigger the awareness of consumers of the holistic benefits of regenerative production methods.

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