*

Protecting forests is key focus of COP30 climate talks

*

In Amazon, tech is being deployed to protect nature

*

One project uses drones, AI to restore degraded forests

By Clar NiChonghaile and Rosalind Thacker

BELEM, Brazil, Nov 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) -

W here the Amazon rainforest meets the Atlantic Ocean, the

Brazilian river island of Marajo is losing ground against

sea-level rise as coastal erosion destroys the rich mangrove

forests that act as its natural buffers.

Resembling upside-down tree roots, the tangled mangrove

branches that extend into the water and provide a habitat for

fish and crabs have been under increasing threat.

"Two years ago, (coastal erosion) destroyed the houses of

the 15 residents who lived here on the beach. It was very

strong," said Patricia Farias Ribeiro, also a local resident.

In response, researchers are using low-cost sensors to

measure factors like air temperature, rainfall and tide levels

to monitor the island, guide conservation efforts and support

residents with useful information such as optimal times to fish.

"Over time, you can identify what changes are taking place,

and we will correlate this with the biodiversity monitoring

data," said Lisangela Cassiano of the government park service

ICMBio.

Cassiano manages the RESEX Soure marine reserve on the

island, one of three sites where ICMBio works with the

International Union for Conservation of Nature, Brazil to

install the sensors built at the nearby Federal University of

Para.

The island has lost up to 150 meters of coastline to erosion

over the past 16 years, partly driven by sea-level rise due to

climate change, according to a 2024 study published in the Ocean

and Coastal Research journal.

Across the river in the city of Belem where the U.N. COP30

climate talks were taking place, the need to protect forests has

been at the top of the agenda under host President Luiz Inacio

Lula da Silva.

He used the summit to launch a new multilateral fund called

the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), which aims to

protect vital biomes like the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil itself can boast some progress, with deforestation

falling 11.08% in the 12 months to July 2025, compared with the

same period a year earlier, reaching its lowest level since

2014, according to a report by Brazilian space research agency

Inpe.

New technologies could play a major part and are already

being used by re.green, an ecological restoration company that

deploys AI and tech to restore forests in the Amazon and

Atlantic forests in Brazil.

CEO Thiago Picolo aims to make forests financially viable by

restoring them and generating revenues from carbon credits and

sustainable timber.

His company was among the 2025 winners of the Earthshot

Prize, a prestigious environmental award created by Britain's

Prince William, and received a £1 million ($1.31 million) grant

to advance its work.

Founded in 2021, re.green has purchased and leased 37,000

hectares (91,000 acres), including restorable pastures, degraded

forests and standing forests. Today, 17,000 hectares (42,000

acres) are under active restoration, with interventions

completed on 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres).

The company sells carbon credits to large corporations

including Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Nestle.

"We take areas that were deforested in the past, decades,

sometimes even centuries, ago, and we restore the original

ecosystem that was there before," Picolo said.

DRONES IN THE AMAZON

Using drones to survey land that can be hard to access,

re.green harnesses AI and other tech to analyze which areas

would yield the best returns from restoration in terms of

biodiversity, climate and local communities.

Their conversion rate is just 1.5%, meaning they close on

fewer than two out of every 100 properties they analyze because

of factors like environmental viability, rain levels or land

prices. They also only buy from landowners, such as cattle

ranchers, and do not use community-owned land.

Picolo said tech can help them reach scale by sifting

through large datasets, and the drones boost efficiency,

including by planting seeds and killing exotic grass that

degrades land.

"The holy grail is for us to be able to do that with very

high efficiency and access land that cannot be accessed through

traditional tractors and agricultural implements," he said.

Picolo said re.green's projects provide local community jobs

in science and tech and promote indirect entrepreneurship by

allowing honey-producing companies to use their land and local

people to harvest acai berries.

HELPING NATURE RECOVER

The model of restoration deployed depends on the local

context, Picolo added.

It can involve intensive interventions where areas are

highly degraded and require more planting, while other areas can

undergo natural regeneration.

"Understanding where to use each model is fundamentally

important," he said. "If we under-invest and rely on natural

regeneration where nature is not able to regenerate itself, then

you could end up with a very subpar type of forest.

"Tech and science need to be applied to what we do now so we

can figure out how to make forests come back faster and better."

One way to do that is by making access to technology more

affordable.

Renan Peixoto Rosario, a researcher from the Federal

University of Para on the Marajo Island project, said the tech

system was designed to be cheap, simple to maintain and easy to

replicate in protected areas.

He said the system can be anywhere from five to 25 times

cheaper than equivalent commercial solutions, thanks to its

open-source hardware, 3D printing, local assembly and modular

design - allowing easy replacement of parts.

"The goal is to make monitoring affordable for remote

coastal communities," he said.

Context links

https://www.context.news/nature/scientists-in-brazil-starve-trees-of-water-to-test-amazons-limits

https://www.context.news/nature/tipping-point-the-amazon-rainforests-vital-signs

https://www.context.news/nature/q-and-a-bezos-earth-fund-ceo-on-how-ai-could-help-climate-and-nature

Reuters links

($1 = 0.7631 pounds)

(Reporting by Clar Ni Chonghaile and Rosalind Thacker; Editing

by Jack Graham and Ellen Wulfhorst. The Thomson Reuters

Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.context.news/)