The Caatinga is woven with the stories of the sertanejo and the semi-arid region, but cultivating the land is challenging. Episodes of extreme drought, high temperatures and human exploitation have driven its ecosystems toward desertification, and restoration programs suffer from high plant mortality.

To address this dilemma, the Restoration Ecology Laboratory at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), coordinated by Professor Gislene Ganade, developed an innovative anti-desertification technique that uses seedlings with elongated roots to increase the survival rate of planted species by up to 70%.

The technique has two (2) pilot projects of up to 5 hectares currently under monitoring. The current goal is to scale this effective methodology and disseminate it to actors involved in large-scale restoration processes — such as companies and enterprises that must comply with forest restoration and environmental compensation requirements — as well as to public agencies responsible for guiding and overseeing these projects.

The chosen region lost 18% of its vegetation cover between 2001 and 2019 and contains Private Natural Heritage Reserves (RPPNs) that lack buffer zones. In addition, there are 40 communities and 3,600 families living in the area — including indigenous communities, riverside populations and agrarian reform settlements — who depend on the ecosystem services nature provides for their survival and whose main economic activities are related to subsistence agriculture.

Through this project, these communities were engaged in the development of activities, equipping them to adapt to the semi-arid conditions and promoting sustainable local development linked to biodiversity conservation and income generation.