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Restoring Brazil's road margins could help the country offset its CO2 emissions and comply with the Bonn and Paris Agreements

G. Fernandes,A. Banhos,N. P. Barbosa,M. Barbosa,H. Bergallo,C. G. Loureiro,G. Overbeck,R. Solar,B. Strassburg,M. M. Vale

Published 2018 in Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation

ABSTRACT

Abstract Ambitious aims have been set for the ecological restoration of degraded land worldwide. The first step to reach this goal is to identify suitable areas for restoration. Here, we advocate for the restoration of roadsides, an often neglected landscape that is usually degraded. Using Brazil as an example, we calculate the potential of roadside restoration for carbon storage, and discuss other additional positive environmental impacts. We show that in Brazil more than 566 thousand hectares of roadsides along federal and state highways are potentially available for restoration. This corresponds to a sequestration of up to 55.3 million tons of carbon, representing up to US$ 26.5 billion in the carbon market. Additional benefits would include erosion control, prevention of landslides, increased landscape value, pollinator habitat provisioning, and contribution to biodiversity conservation. We push for roadside restoration for its many environmental benefits and other practical reasons: roadsides in Brazil are governmentally owned, reducing the needing for negotiations with stakeholders in proposed interventions. Roadside restoration, however, is unlikely to re-establish predisturbance ecosystem conditions in all cases, but it may significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation, for instance, by providing habitat and increasing ecological connectivity for specific taxa and biomes. Thus, the restoration of roadsides in Brazil represents an immense potential for carbon sequestration, with other important environmental benefits. Proper management is necessary, and concrete strategies and goals in restoration planning will vary among different Brazilian biomes. The restoration of these currently undervalued public lands can make the financial and environmental benefits of land restoration evident to stakeholders and thus stimulate ecological restoration.

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