BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (BTG Pactual TIG) and Conservation International today announced that native ecosystem restoration is now underway across more than 20,000 hectares of Brazil’s Cerrado biome, marking a significant acceleration of the firms’ Latin American reforestation strategy. According to data recorded by the Brazilian Restoration and Reforestation Observatory, an independent platform that tracks and maps native vegetation recovery, this further cements the strategy’s position as the largest ever restoration effort in the region. Conservation International serves as Impact Adviser for social and environmental outcomes.
The strategy focuses on conserving, restoring and reforesting degraded landscapes across Latin America, including Brazil’s Cerrado, one of the world’s most biodiverse and fastest disappearing seasonally dry ecosystems. More than half of the Cerrado has already been cleared for cattle ranching and farming. The strategy targets degraded cattle pasture for restoration, bringing back native vegetation in support of biodiversity and local communities.
The approximately 20,000 hectares now under restoration are expected to create more than 80,000 hectares of connected habitat, improving landscape function and enabling wildlife movement across the region.
“Reaching more than 20,000 hectares under restoration reflects the progress that can be achieved when long-term investment is paired with science-based restoration,” said Mark Wishnie, Chief Sustainability Officer at BTG Pactual TIG. “Seeing the impact on the ground firsthand, from recovering forests to returning wildlife, is already painting a clear picture of what full-scale implementation of this strategy will deliver . While there is still significant work ahead, this milestone demonstrates how institutional investment can help advance meaningful environmental outcomes alongside sustainable rural economic development.”
Together with the Forest Restoration Laboratory at the Federal University of Viçosa, BTG Pactual TIG and Conservation International are also advancing one of the largest restoration experiments ever conducted in the Cerrado. The 81-hectare field trial compares direct seeding, native seedling planting and natural regeneration to identify the most effective and scalable restoration approaches for the biome, with findings informing restoration practices across the strategy’s portfolio and beyond.
“This research is expected to make valuable contributions to Cerrado restoration and provide knowledge to support broader efforts to restore this important ecosystem. The initial data show positive results and steady progress in the treatments, with strong ground cover, seedling survival and growth, and ongoing natural regeneration. We look forward to sharing insights from this work to continue scaling ecological restoration of the Cerrado biome,” said Professor Sebastião Venâncio Martins from the Department of Forest Engineering at the Federal University of Viçosa.
“The speed at which this landscape is responding demonstrates what can be achieved when science-backed restoration is supported with resources allowing it to scale. As the trees return and the water begins to flow again, we’re seeing jaguars, wolves, tapirs and other threatened wildlife returning to the ecosystem, which shows it is a more healthy ecosystem than it was before,” said Mauricio Bianco, Senior Vice President at Conservation International in Brazil. “With 20,000 hectares successfully under restoration and the creation of more than 500 jobs alongside of it, this work helps show that commercially viable restoration can deliver meaningful ecological and social economic outcomes.”
The strategy closed with US$1.24 billion in equity commitments in April 2026, making it one of the largest-known reforestation and restoration funds to date.1 At full deployment, it aims to expand to 270,000 hectares across Latin America—conserving and restoring approximately 135,000 hectares of native forests and other habitats, while establishing approximately 135,000 hectares of FSC-certified commercial tree farms on previously degraded land, as of 2025 all forests are certified or in the process of this certification.
To date:
- Nearly 29 million trees have been planted across more than 64,000 acres in Brazil;
- More than 1,000 plant and animal species have been documented across the portfolio;
- Over 400 miles of stream corridors are under enhanced protection; and
- The strategy is expected to support approximately 2,700 direct and indirect full-time equivalent jobs at full deployment.
Earlier this year, the strategy’s first carbon project, called Brazil Cerrado 1 – became the first project globally to receive credits issued under Verra’s VM0047 Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) methodology, satisfying the Core Carbon Principles of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market. Over time, the strategy is expected to generate millions of additional high-integrity carbon removal credits while supporting long-term ecosystem restoration.
About BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (BTG Pactual TIG)
The BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (BTG Pactual TIG) is one of the world’s largest timberland investment managers, managing US$ 8.2 billion in assets and commitments and 3.3 million acres under management throughout the U.S. and Latin America. TIG has approximately 160 professional staff and an on-the-ground presence through 23 offices across the Americas, bringing local, regional, and global experience to bear on the careful management of our clients’ investments (as of March 31, 2026).
About Conservation International
Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, for biodiversity and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. Go to Conservation.org for more, and follow our work on Conservation News, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
About the Forest Restoration Laboratory (LARF-UFV)
LARF is a laboratory dedicated to research and technical consulting in the field of forest restoration, affiliated with one of Brazil’s leading teaching and research institutions, the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV). Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Sebastião Venâncio Martins, who also holds a Level 1A Research Productivity Fellowship from CNPq, LARF conducts ecological restoration projects across various Brazilian biomes; notably, its partnership with TIG and TTG Brasil is responsible for one of the world’s largest Cerrado restoration experiments.
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1 Largest greenfield, reforestation and restoration-focused fund closed to date as reported by Agri Investor in January 2026 and based on third-party data published by Preqin as of March 2026. |
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