The Atlantic Forest, known locally as Mata Atlântica, is Brazil’s richest and most threatened forest land. At the Mantiqueira Mountains (Serra da Mantiqueira), not far from the country’s largest urban centres, some are leading by example and getting their hands dirty to restore the past and sow the seeds of the future. 

There are people committed to forest growing. In the Bocaina de Minas municipality – located partly inside the Itatiaia National Park, the first of its kind in Brazil, created in 1937 – there are at least three distinct initiatives of forest regrowth that resulted in verifiable outcomes for the restoration of wildlife and the natural springs.

Text and research by Guilherme Russo

Photos by Renato Stockler