Brazil Program Pays Farmers to Keep Forests Standing
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📰 The quick summary: A Brazilian program that pays farmers to protect forests they could legally clear has safeguarded over 30,000 hectares in the Amazon and Cerrado, and is now seeking to scale up through carbon credits, commodity price premiums, and cheaper loans.
📈 One key stat: Between 28 and 38 million hectares of native vegetation in the Cerrado alone could be legally cleared by landowners, putting a vast stretch of biodiversity and climate-regulating land at serious risk.
💬 One key quote: “Deforestation is a complex problem so you’re not going to be able to address it with a single solution, you need a combination of incentives,” said Julia Mangueira, conservation director for the Cerrado at The Nature Conservancy Brazil.
1️⃣ The big picture: Across Brazil, millions of hectares of forest on private land can be legally cleared by landowners under the country’s Forest Code, which only requires them to protect a minimum share of their property. To counter this risk, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) launched CONSERV, a payment for ecosystem services program that gives farmers financial incentives to keep their legal reserve surplus standing. During its pilot phase from 2020 to 2024, the program protected over 30,000 hectares across the states of Mato Grosso, Pará, and Maranhão. Participating farmers reported fewer fires, more wildlife, and more rainfall on their properties. Now IPAM is working to expand the model and find sustainable, long-term funding beyond donations.
2️⃣ Why is this good news: Paying farmers directly for the forests they keep standing has already proven effective at protecting tens of thousands of hectares that could otherwise be legally cleared. Farmers enrolled in the program reported real co-benefits beyond the payments, including fewer fires, more rainfall, and greater biodiversity on their land. A combination of carbon credits, commodity price premiums, and access to discounted loans could create a self-sustaining financial model that no longer depends on donor funding. Scaling this approach across Brazil’s vast private landholdings could protect tens of millions of additional hectares of ecologically critical land. Preserving these forests helps safeguard water resources, regulate the climate, and protect the agricultural productivity that global food security depends on.
3️⃣ What’s next: IPAM is currently evaluating the feasibility of combining carbon credits, commodity premiums, and discounted loans to fund the program at scale. Clearer regulation around how payment values are calculated remains a key gap that policymakers need to address. Farmers like Simonetti are counting on new funding to resume payments, as without them many say they will start clearing their legal reserve surplus.
Read the full story here: Mongabay – In Brazil, a project paying farmers for forests is looking to scale up
