By Will McCarry
November 13, 2024
Amid a vanishing savanna, new corridor a ‘big win’ for wildlife
6 min
Editor’s note: In April 2025, after this story was published, the project described in this story won Environmental Finance’s 2025 award for Sustainability-Linked Loan of the Year, in recognition of the project’s innovative financing model and its environmental outcomes. Conservation International was one of three implementing organizations honored. More details about the award can be found here.
Brazil is home to a vast, but overlooked, tropical savanna called the Cerrado.
What was once a vast stretch of degraded pastureland just a year ago is being rapidly transformed into tree farms and 2,500 hectares (6,000 acres) of newly restored natural forest. While the project’s primary purpose is to store climate-warming carbon, it is also designed to protect biodiversity.
As the natural woodland has returned, so has the wildlife.
A giant anteater strolls along the forest edge.
“Our goal was always to have the restoration area follow the watershed,” said Mark Wishnie, chief sustainability officer at TIG. “We envisioned it as a wildlife corridor connecting existing patches of protected Cerrado forest.”
“When we first started this partnership, many of the species we’re seeing lived in a small patch of remaining forest on the property,” said Miguel Calmon, a scientist at Conservation International. “Now they’re starting to move into the restored areas, too. That’s a big win.”
Giant anteaters can be seen shuffling along between the rows of towering eucalyptus, and rheas — giant ostrich-like birds — often graze on the fringes of the forest.
But more elusive species dwell in the underbrush, where native plants are slowly reclaiming the land. Tapirs, with their long, trunk-like snouts, carve trails through the dense vegetation as they forage for fruit and leaves. By the water, capybaras, the world’s largest rodents, gather in herds, their watchful eyes scanning the surroundings as they wade through streams or rest on riverbanks. Closer to the ground, armadillos scurry through leaf litter, digging for insects.
And from treetops to understory, birds of all shapes and sizes are flocking back to the property. TIG has documented 188 bird species, from colorful parrots and darting hummingbirds to powerful hawks, falcons, and the flightless, spindle-legged seriema.
Birds of all shapes and sizes are finding habitat in the newly restored forest.
Protection and production
The presence of so many species stems from an unlikely partnership between conservationists and timber operators.
But Calmon stressed that restoration is an ongoing process — one that will require operating across an entire landscape and over decades: establishing native plants in the right place, working with local communities, carefully monitoring conditions and removing aggressive invasive grasses that have overrun and degraded the land.
“The good news is that as more wildlife returns, they can help accelerate restoration,” he said.
Species like tapirs are using the newly restored wildlife corridor.
Birds and herbivores like tapirs spread seeds, encouraging plant growth and diversity, while animals such as armadillos and wild pigs disturb the soil as they forage, creating microhabitats for plants to take root. This natural turnover helps diversify plant life, building a more resilient ecosystem.
With prey plentiful, predators are making a comeback as well. Ocelots — sleek, spotted wildcats about double the size of a house cat — now prowl silently through the trees, hunting small mammals. In a thrilling development, one of the project’s camera traps captured a rare image of a lone jaguar stalking through the forest, signaling a new chapter for the restoration team.
"Spotting jaguars and other big predators like pumas in the area is a powerful indicator that the ecosystem is on the mend. Their presence means the food chain is recovering, and the landscape is becoming balanced enough to support these apex predators once again,” said Calmon.
“Living things make carbon storage possible,” Calmon said. “Of course, plants do the heavy lifting — soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away in their roots so that it can’t contribute to climate change. But for plants to keep doing their job effectively, they need a healthy ecosystem.”
This project is just the beginning of TIG’s ambition. Over the next five years, they plan to set aside half of their restoration strategy’s investments in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile for conservation — protecting and restoring 135,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of degraded pastureland back into natural vegetation.
“This is only the beginning,” Wishnie said. “Our goal is not just to restore the land, but to set a new standard for what’s possible in sustainable forestry — proving that nature and economic production can thrive together, for the benefit of people, climate and wildlife.”
Capybaras are known as "ecosystem engineers," shaping habitats by grazing and clearing channels along riverbanks.
Further reading:
Stay close to the work
