What is the potential for restoring degraded or altered areas in Brazil? To answer this question, the MapBiomas network gathered the country's available databases and overlaid them with the most recent land cover and land use maps in Brazil. The result is a platform for visualizing and monitoring areas with a commitment or obligation to restore native vegetation, available for free online starting October 23. The objective is to assist in monitoring vegetation cover dynamics in areas with environmental restoration commitments or obligations, including areas embargoed due to deforestation as well as voluntary initiatives. 

"The Recovery Monitor meets the demand of various users by bringing together, for the first time in a single system, areas with various types of restoration commitments. This allows for the characterization of the status and potential of native vegetation restoration at national or state levels, while also generating a detailed report for each registered area. The monitor increases the demand for organized public data to inform society," explains Marcos Rosa, technical coordinator of MapBiomas. 

In its first version, the Recovery Monitor evaluates areas from three main sources: state and federal embargoes caused by interventions in vegetation cover; data from the Brazilian Restoration Observatory (OR) registered as public access; and the Computerized System for Supporting Ecological Restoration (SARE), featuring ecological restoration projects in the state of São Paulo. Federal and state embargoes were obtained from data provided by IBAMA, ICMBio, the Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute (IPAAM), and the state secretariats of the environment (SEMA). 

In total, the areas registered on the platform sum up to 6.9 million hectares, considering the period from 2000 to 2025. These areas with native vegetation restoration commitments or obligations stem mostly from federal and state embargoes. IBAMA is the primary source, contributing 64.8% of the total registered on the platform, or 4.5 million hectares.  

“There are millions of hectares of areas with an obligation or commitment to be restored with native vegetation. Understanding whether these obligations and commitments are being met is fundamental to accelerating the restoration process of Brazilian biomes. This is the goal of the Recovery Monitor," according to Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas”, according to Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas.

This database revealed that 80% of the areas with a commitment or obligation for recovery are located in the Amazon biome and 12.1% in the Cerrado biome. The year with the highest number of registered polygons was 2024, primarily due to the increase observed in the Cerrado. However, the year with the largest total area under recovery commitment or obligation was 2023. More than half (57.8%) of the total areas with recovery commitments are located in Pará (37.8%) and Mato Grosso (20%), followed by Amazonas at 16.5%.

Of the total areas registered on the platform, approximately 23% are compatible with restoration patterns, while about 11% are non-compatible. "The remaining areas were considered inconclusive, either because they are recent commitments or because indicators could not distinguish a pattern in vegetation dynamics. Reducing inconclusive areas will be one of the main objectives for future monitor updates," explains Paulo Teixeira, a researcher on the Monitor team.

To reach these figures, MapBiomas researchers developed a method for categorizing areas (polygons) with environmental restoration process compatibility in Brazil. They also defined restoration as the process of recomposing native vegetation in degraded or altered areas so they become functional again, without necessarily returning to their original conditions. Eligible areas for the platform are those with a restoration commitment, whether voluntary or compulsory. 

Researchers used annual land cover and land use maps (MapBiomas Collection 10), comparing the land cover and use class between the year of the commitment and the most recently mapped year (2024). They also calculated the difference in vegetative vigor using a vegetation index extracted from Landsat satellite imagery available since 2000.

“The deforestation process causes a sharp drop in the vegetation index value. Restoration, on the other hand, is monitored by observing the gradual rise of this index over time, reflecting the increase in leaf area and vegetative vigor, especially in forest physiognomies, serving as an indicator that the area may be recovering," explains Kenia Mourão, coordinator of the Recovery Monitor.