Floresta Áurea – Atlantic Forest is a restoration project covering 11.4 hectares (114,000 square meters), developed in partnership between the Alok Institute and the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation, with support from Banco do Brasil, Estrella Galicia, and Vivo.
The initiative takes place in two areas with specific objectives:
- Objective: Promote forest restoration with native Atlantic Forest species in the Middle Tietê watershed in the state of São Paulo, in Anhembi and Barra Bonita cities. The project will reforest 7.4 hectares of Permanent Preservation Areas (PPA) by planting 18,500 native seedlings.
- Objective: To implement ecological restoration on an experimental basis, using an alternative methodology for forest restoration through direct seeding with drones over 2 hectares for the pilot phase in 2025, and an additional 2 hectares to serve as a buffer (safety margin) for the replacement and/or expansion of seedlings in both restoration scenarios (conventional and drone seeding). The area was affected by a wildfire four years ago, which reduced its floristic diversity. The project will be carried out in the region of the Barreiro Rico Ecological Station Conservation Unit.
Additionally, a marketing campaign will be launched to raise awareness, inspire, and mobilize society in defense of the Atlantic Forest, local territories, and environmental conservation. This campaign is a collaboration between the Alok Institute and the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation.
The project is part of the “Áurea Forest Program” (Alok Institute) and aligns with the “Forests of the Future” initiative, a program by the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation. This program brings together civil society organizations, landowners, private sector partners, and public authorities to restore areas with native Atlantic Forest species, focusing on legally protected areas that contribute to water and biodiversity conservation.
“The project will operate in municipalities where the original remnants of the Atlantic Forest have almost completely disappeared, with current coverage at just 0.67% in Anhembi (SP) and 1.26% in Barra Bonita (SP). In addition to the concern of expanding Atlantic Forest areas through forest restoration, the partnership brings a technological innovation component by testing the use of drones as one of the techniques to be applied and monitored — which could, shortly, lead to reduced forest restoration costs in certain cases,” says Rafael Bitante Fernandes, Forest Restoration Manager at SOS Mata Atlântica.
We’d like to thank @xmobots and @ceres.seeding for their support with the illustrative drone flights featured in the video.
Project Execution:
The Floresta Áurea Program (Alok Institute) aligns with the ÁUREA musical tour by artist Alok (president of the Alok Institute). The tour seeks to raise awareness of Brazil’s rich biomes and the urgent need for preservation and restoration.
The SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation, the project’s technical executor, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to Atlantic Forest conservation. Founded in 1986, its mission is to inspire society to protect this biome by promoting public policies, environmental monitoring, research, demonstration projects, dialogue with public and private sectors, environmental legislation improvements, and public engagement campaigns.
