Tropical Restoration in Bahia, Brazil

Rayna Benzeev

LASC Travel Grant 2019 Project

Tropical restoration has gained a newfound momentum as one of the world’s most promising solutions to tackle both the biodiversity crisis and climate change. Many countries have already committed to collectively restore over 140 million hectares of deforested and degraded land. Yet, it is still unclear where and how this restoration will take place. To begin fulfilling these targets, decision-makers need evidence-based guidance from researchers to prioritize locations with the highest potential for success. My research project aims to address these concerns by determining how to best prioritize sites for restoration in an Atlantic Forest landscape of Bahia, Brazil. In the summer of 2019, I went to Bahia for three months, collecting key informant interviews with farmers, practitioners, NGOs, and researchers, to determine what socio-economic variables are plausible indicators of restoration project success. I will use the results from these interviews to create a model and a tool to inform decision-makers on scenarios to prioritize for restoration, based on 1) feasibility: likelihood of restoration success, and 2) opportunity: greatest restoration of environmental benefits. 

During my time in Brazil, I learned to be open to conversation beyond the scope of my interviews themselves. In the field, the unplanned and informal dialogues that arose through chance ended up greatly contributing to my understanding of the topic. I learned to talk about my topic with everyone I met, since I was often able to find out useful information and unique perspectives from seemingly random connections. I also attended environmental events in town in order to network and get in touch with people who might be interested to talk about my research. For others intending to collect similar types of research, I recommend attending any possible events, programs, or festivals you learn about in your study region. I also found it useful to not only limit my interviews to people I could physically meet. If I learned about someone who I wasn’t able to connect with in-person, I reached out and arranged a conversation over Skype. Last, my richest conversations emerged from interviews I was able to conduct in a more comfortable and informal setting. If you are able to escape the office setting, do it! My main takeaways are to stay open, flexible, and to not feel the need to stick to the original plan.