Lessons from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest

For one week, we travelled across southern Bahia, a region where the Atlantic Forest, once vast and continuous, now survives in scattered fragments. Yet within those remnants lies a powerful story of recovery, where science, culture, and community are knitting back life into the land.

The Veracel Ecological Station shows how degraded forestlands can heal through natural regeneration supported by research and local commitment. Here, every seedling is tracked and every tree restored with purpose. It is the kind of long-term vision Kenya’s 15 billion trees initiative can draw from, combining the Kenya Forestry Research Institute’s research services with community-based monitoring.

Pau-Brasil National Park, one of the last strongholds of the ancient Atlantic Forest, will teach you the importance of protecting what still stands while restoring what has been lost. The park thrives because surrounding communities see conservation not as exclusion but as a partnership.

It reminds us that Kenya’s protected landscapes, from Mau to Kakamega, can only endure if local people remain part of their story.

Pau-Brasil Rural Settlement, where families who were once landless grow cocoa beneath native trees under the cabruca system, keeps the forest canopy intact while producing food, showing that land reform and ecological restoration can work hand in hand. The shamba system could evolve in a similar direction with stronger ecological safeguards and farmer training.

In Teixeira de Freitas, the Arboretum Programme stands tall in its work on forest diversity through seed collection, nursery management, and research.

It unites institutions, scientists, and communities under one coordinated restoration effort, a model Kenya could emulate to secure native species for its 15 billion trees campaign.

The Egídio Brunetto School of Agroecology trains small-scale farmers through a hands-on model that blends classroom learning with practical fieldwork. It proves that restoration and food sovereignty can grow together, a lesson Kenya’s agricultural training institutions can adapt.

At the Jaqueira Indigenous Reserve, the Pataxó people demonstrated how culture and conservation coexist.

Their indigenous-led tourism preserves both biodiversity and identity, echoing the struggles and resilience of Kenya’s communities, such as the Ogiek and Sengwer.

Kenya should learn from Brazil, rooting every tree in research, community, and culture. This will not just restore forests; it will restore hope, because every forest tells a story, and Kenya’s is still being written.

The writer is a climate action enthusiast and a communications specialist at Windward Communications Consultancy.