--- title: Farmers Could Be Key To Restoring Brazil's Forests description: Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest in Brazil. canonical: https://time.com/7024322/instituto-terra-farmers-restoring-brazil-forests/ author: Lisa Nho article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-09-27T15:42:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:47:11.567Z article:section: Climate og:title: Farmers Could Be Key To Restoring Brazil's Forests og:description: Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest in Brazil. og:url: https://time.com/7024322/instituto-terra-farmers-restoring-brazil-forests/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f06e3e9fd0c452/698a5b7eb21a9c9bd650a88e/instituto-terra-brazil-forest-restoration.jpg?branch=production&width=1022&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1022 og:image:height: 575 og:image:alt: Instituto Terra Reforests Barren Atlantic Forest Portion og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Farmers Could Be Key To Restoring Brazil's Forests twitter:description: Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest in Brazil. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f06e3e9fd0c452/698a5b7eb21a9c9bd650a88e/instituto-terra-brazil-forest-restoration.jpg?branch=production&width=1022&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch: Farmers Could Be Key To Restoring Brazil's Forests > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=6904879c-f51f-43ab-963a-2c0aec8dd0c4&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Farmers Could Be Key To Forest Restoration In Brazil [Watch (HLS stream): Farmers Could Be Key To Forest Restoration In Brazil](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PUPt0g6T.m3u8) (5:16)  _Published 2024-09-25. Instituto Terra was founded by Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado and his wife Lélia Dluiz Wanick. Since 1998, they have planted more than 2.7 million trees in the Brazillian Rio Doce Basin area. Through their work, Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest and 2,000 natural springs in the region. Presently, they are enlisting the help of farmers to restore more land and waterways._ by [Lisa Nho](https://time.com/author/lisa-nho/) ## Lisa Nho Sep 27, 2024 3:42 PM UTC Instituto Terra was founded by Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado and his wife Lélia Dluiz Wanick. Since 1998, they have planted more than 2.7 million trees in the Brazillian Rio Doce Basin area. Through their work, Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest and 2,000 natural springs in the region. Presently, they are enlisting the help of farmers to restore more land and waterways. by [Lisa Nho](https://time.com/author/lisa-nho/) ## Lisa Nho Sep 27, 2024 3:42 PM UTC Instituto Terra was founded by Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado and his wife Lélia Dluiz Wanick. Since 1998, they have planted more than 2.7 million trees in the Brazillian Rio Doce Basin area. Through their work, Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest and 2,000 natural springs in the region. Presently, they are enlisting the help of farmers to restore more land and waterways. ## Transcript 00. The status of environmental degradation in Ro Dope Valley is. It's been 40 years that the forest that once blossomed in this region, that's about 85 than square kilometres, which is about the size of New York State or Portugal. Region that once looked so alive now looks completely dry. And our main river, the Rods, that gives the name to its valley, was killed about ten years ago when one of the mining companies that used to mine the soil here, one of those companies had a protective dam that was damaged, and it completely destroyed, contaminated and destroyed the river. So it's the situation is at its worst, really. It all started with a dream. La, my mom, we had this crazy dream, which was replanting the forest that was here once before, and the forest started growing, and it grew more and more during 25 years. It's very hard to grow a forest in an arid region, where it only rains four months a year. And so they managed to gather technology, science in order to learn and to invent a method in order to make this possible. It allows for very small businesses to actually reverse a part of their benefits into planting trees, into creating carbon fixation and restoration of biodiversity. We are augmenting the size of our forest. So we're going now from 700 ears to 2,500 ears. So we need to restore another 1,800 ears. So for that, we'll be planting a 4 million trees. It's a project that will in ten years, restore about 55,000 water sources. It will also transform the way we produce cattle. It's mainly cattle that we produce in this region. And by doing so, we are going to do a lot of changes for the region. When you restore water sources in the property, you will bring water back. There is a big symbolic change. It will also mechanically increase the productivity of this land. It took us some time to convince local farmers that it was worth doing it. But now everyone is seeing that when we do that, we not only bring water back, but we also increase the revenues of the family. So the perceived increased revenue in the region when we do that is at about 30% of increased revenue. We have families that suddenly are making more money. They are working less. They are using this water for many, many benefits. F. Agroforestry demands a lot of work, a lot of people working. In our region, we have family farms. So we need to simplify those techniques in order for family to be able to grow it. So having that, the big change here is not about accessing the technique. The big change is about convincing people in this ideological change, convincing people that it's possible to change, that it's square feet, that they will lose surface of productivity. Their land will have trees, so they will have less land to grow their cattle, but this less land will produce much more than the one they have. As soon as we managed to convince them and have this ideological change, then that's where the trick lies. Through our experience, we learn that we know how to bring water back into a place that is completely dry. We know that through bringing water back, we can change small farmers consciousness. We can stimulate everybody's intelligence and understanding of what's better for each and every one of us. And we now make a dream, and we have allowed ourself to dream that we can bring rain back. She's a crazy dream, but we really believe in it, and we hope we can prove that we can survive as a species on this planet. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7024322/instituto-terra-farmers-restoring-brazil-forests/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7024322/instituto-terra-farmers-restoring-brazil-forests/"},"headline":"Watch: Farmers Could Be Key To Restoring Brazil's Forests","datePublished":"2024-09-27T15:42:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:47:11.567Z","description":"Instituto Terra has helped to restore more than 550 acres of forest in Brazil.","url":"https://time.com/7024322/instituto-terra-farmers-restoring-brazil-forests/","keywords":["Food & Agriculture","climate change","AmazonFutures24","Futures Prosperous"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f06e3e9fd0c452/698a5b7eb21a9c9bd650a88e/instituto-terra-brazil-forest-restoration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Nho","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-nho/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37f06e3e9fd0c452/698a5b7eb21a9c9bd650a88e/instituto-terra-brazil-forest-restoration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Instituto Terra Reforests Barren Atlantic Forest Portion","caption":"Instituto Aerial view of the reforested area next to the headquarter of the Instituto Terra at the beginning of the raining season on Nov. 22, 2019 in Aimorés, Brazil. 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