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City government signs agreement with BNDES to invest R$ 10 million in the Living Forest program.
Published on 07/05/2026 - 15:59 | Updated on 07/05/2026 - 18:36
Photo: Courtesy of the Secretariat of Environment and Climate The Rio de Janeiro City Hall signed, this Thursday (May 7th), the agreement for the municipality's adhesion to the Living Forest initiative, being the first city in the country to join the program. Signed by Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere and the president of BNDES, Aloizio Mercadante, the agreement foresees an investment of R$ 10 million, with half contributed by the Bank and half by the municipality, through the Secretariat of Environment and Climate.
The funds will be used to support ecological and productive restoration projects in the Atlantic Forest biome in the municipality of Rio, specifically in Serra da Posse, in Campo Grande, in the West Zone.
"There couldn't be a better city to be the first to join the Living Forest program. Rio has a historic reforestation program that's over 40 years old, which actually began with the reforestation of the Tijuca Forest 200 years ago. With this project, we restore the Atlantic Forest biome, guaranteeing green infrastructure, and doing so, like all the city's environmental projects, with the leadership of the communities themselves that live bordering these forests and who lead this process, so that we can advance more and more with reforestation," said Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere.
With a 48-month execution period, the project foresees the planting and maintenance of 337.125 seedlings of native Atlantic Forest species in a total area of 93 hectares, strengthening the environmental recovery and climate resilience of the region. The intervention area is located within the Area of Relevant Ecological Interest Floresta da Posse (ARIEFP) and encompasses sections of the Paineiras, Posse, and Luís Bom hills in Campo Grande, the largest neighborhood in the country.
The project promotes the creation of an ecological corridor, integrating areas previously reforested by the Mutirão Reflorestamento Program and by environmental compensation measures. This will form a continuous strip of vegetation, essential for the movement of wildlife, the maintenance of biodiversity, and the ecological stability of the region.
The proposed restoration gradually replaces invasive grasses with native tree cover, reducing the risk of fire and promoting natural shading of the soil.
The City Hall's letter of intent was delivered in November 2025, in Belém (PA), during the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2025 (COP30).
"We are happy because Rio de Janeiro is the first municipality in Brazil to prioritize this agenda. Reforesting these neighborhoods where, in the summer, the heat index reaches 48ºC is very important because trees, especially native trees, provide oxygen, clean the air, bring shade, and consequently improve the quality of life for the population. Here we are taking care of a natural environment that was fundamental to the city becoming what it is," stated Mercadante.
Mayor to present new projects to BNDES
During the meeting, Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere stated that he will present other projects for which he intends to partner with BNDES. Among them are Praça Onze Maravilha and the Rio System – Integrated Bus Network.
— The proposal is to present the Rio Integrated Bus Network System, which is the work we have been doing to ensure that the city's bus lines have the same standard of excellence, quality, service, and dignity as the city's BRTs. We have already completed the first two phases of bidding, and there are four more lots in public consultation. These lots total approximately 1.500 buses, but to reach the 4000 buses of the total fleet, we still need to complete four more lots. We know that BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) is making a significant effort to decarbonize the fleet throughout Brazil, and just as we partnered to transform the BRT, we want to repeat this feat to continue advancing with the city's regular bus fleet — concluded the mayor.
Regarding the Praça Onze Maravilha project, Cavaliere stated that the project is under discussion in the City Council and that BNDES would be a very important partner in building the financial structure and project modeling itself, so that the investment can be made primarily with private resources.
Living Forest
The Living Forest program is a BNDES initiative aimed at supporting ecological restoration projects using native species in all Brazilian biomes. It also works to strengthen the technical and management structure of the restoration sector's production chain and to support agroforestry production systems associated with ecological restoration.
The Living Forest project is funded 50% by the BNDES Socio-environmental Fund and 50% by supporting institutions. Due to the success of the initiative, which has already mobilized investments of almost R$ 500 million, BNDES launched the second phase of the initiative in the second half of last year: Living Forest 2025.
The support from the municipality of Rio is part of the second phase of the initiative. For this new stage, BNDES announced that the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (FBDS) was selected to manage the resources.
Choosing a managing partner allows for reaching a greater number of locations and achieving more effective results in supporting restoration. Among the main responsibilities of the managing partner are the selection, contracting, and monitoring of ecological restoration projects. FBDS was chosen through a public selection process launched in August 2025, being considered the best among the 13 proposals submitted.
The second phase brings some new features compared to the first stage of the initiative. Instead of issuing calls for proposals with a single opportunity to submit proposals, successive opportunities will be offered until all the planned resources are allocated. Another change is that, in addition to restoration, projects may include activities and conservation of biodiversity.
The benefits of restoration promoted through this initiative are extensive: recovery of degraded areas, connection of forest fragments, conservation of water resources, preservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of natural resources, reduction of erosion, improvement of the microclimate, removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, strengthening of production chains linked to reforestation, generation of jobs and income, in addition to the potential for generating carbon credits.
International recognition
The initiative earned BNDES the 2024 Alide Award, an international recognition granted by the Latin American Association of Development Finance Institutions, highlighting the program's innovative governance model – with an operational management partner, which provides agility and scale to the results – and the coordination between different actors: private and public companies, multinationals, governments, and public development banks.
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