Project description
Digital tech in large-scale Amazon forest restoration in Brazil
Brazil plans to recover 12 million hectares of the Amazon rainforest region by 2030 through the use of digital technologies such as remote sensing and AI for enhanced efficiency. Their influence on the local practices is not yet known. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ReAmazon research project will investigate the contribution of digital technologies in ecological restoration in the Amazon, with emphasis on Mombak. This start-up sells carbon credits of high integrity to Google and Microsoft, among other clients. The research will be done in the states of São Paulo and Pará and will explore how large-scale restoration combines standardisation with socio-biodiversity and how digital technologies convert knowledge into data.
Objective
Ecological restoration has increasingly been promoted as a crucial strategy for mitigating global climate change. In the Amazon Forest, this has been reflected by the Brazilian plan to transform the “Arc of Deforestation”, where degradation is more intense, into the “Arc of Restoration”, where 12 million hectares will be restored by 2030. To reach this scale, restoration initiatives are increasingly relying on digital technologies, such as planetary data platforms, remote sensing, and AI, to increase automation, improve decision-making, and reduce costs. Despite the prominence that restoration has acquired, little is known about how these technologies are shaping restoration practices on the ground, or how ecological complexity, local knowledge, and global demands are negotiated in this scaling up of restoration. ReAmazon fills this gap by proposing a qualitative empirical study of the role digital technologies play in the scaling of ecological restoration in the Amazon. The research will use ethnography to study the case of Mombak, a startup that develops high-integrity carbon credits through restoration, has big tech companies like Google and Microsoft as clients, and is expanding by replicating its tech-driven approach across numerous private properties. The project will follow activities at the company’s office in São Paulo, where monitoring software and reporting systems are developed, and at its experimental farm in Pará (Amazon), where seedling nurseries, planting, and restoration experiments are carried out. The research will analyze how restoration at scale negotiates between standardization and promoting socio-biodiversity (O1); and how digital technologies mediate the transformation of scientific and local knowledge into digital data in restoration sites (O2). In doing so, ReAmazon will contribute to STS debates on the increasing centrality of digital technologies in governing climate change, while aligning with the EU twin green and digital transitions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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2300 KOBENHAVN
Denmark
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