The objective of ‘RestoreC’ is to assess opportunities to sequester carbon with low risk, good cost-benefit and co-benefits for biodiversity through the restoration of the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest.
THE PROJECT IS ORGANIZED INTO SEVEN FRONTS OF ACTION:
1. Understand the biophysical causes and water stress resilience of carbon fluxes, stocks and allocation occurring in native and restored ecosystems in two megasites located in contrasting locations along the Cerrado-Atlantic Forest gradient, as a way to explore pool stability of carbon in future climate change scenarios.
2. Assess the biophysical and management determinants of carbon storage in restored Cerrado and Atlantic Forest ecosystems through an extensive biome-scale field plot inventory network.
3. Apply new field-based remote sensing approaches to assess how vegetation structure relates to aboveground carbon accumulation in stages of restoration and management in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest.
4. Quantify, through satellite remote sensing, the potential for large-scale annual carbon removal through the restoration of native vegetation in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, as a basis for prioritizing the different restoration strategies assessed locally.
5. Define environmental degradation indices, integrating several environmental risk indicators for the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, contributing to the mapping of potential areas for restoration and definition of restoration strategies at the local level, including carbon persistence.
6. Create robust cost estimates for restoration in the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, including implementation costs and land opportunity, and explore their covariation with potential for carbon sequestration and availability of land for restoration.
7. Present an atlas with opportunities for low-cost, low-risk carbon sequestration through the restoration of biodiversity ecosystems.