National Engagement: Brazil

To scale impact and build local ownership, G20 GLI is starting its activities at the national level, planning to provide support to national startup ecosystems. In 2025, we’re launching a pilot engagement in Brazil, leveraging accelerators, innovation hubs, and public institutions to reach hundreds of youth ecopreneurs working on land restoration.

A global hotspot for biodiversity and forest restoration, Brazil offers high restoration potential and a robust ecosystem of green startups and accelerators. Government and private sector actors have expressed strong interest in GLI’s goals.

Launched in May 2025, this course targets university students worldwide enrolled in urban planning and related programs. With a focus on sustainable urban land restoration and innovation, it aims to equip a new generation of urban planners and eco-entrepreneurs.

Professors, lecturers and training instructors can receive course materials and implement this course to empower their students in addressing the challenges of balancing land use, land restoration and sustainable development through informed urban planning.

Why Brazil?

Brazil is one of the world’s most ecologically significant countries, home to six unique biomes—including the Amazon, Caatinga, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Pantanal, and Pampa—all facing increasing threats from degradation and deforestation. With 22 million hectares committed for restoration by 2030 and projections of up to 2.5 million green jobs, Brazil is a natural leader in the restoration economy.

Brazil leads Latin America in startup investment —$1.7B in funding (Startuplink, 2025)— with investors focused on quality and scalability, favoring startups with clear paths to revenue and social-environmental impact. Activity is increasing across all five regions, though the Southeast (notably São Paulo) remains the central hub.

And, there’s more:

Global ecological relevance: 310 million hectares of public forests
High urgency: In 2020, over 312,000 km² were burned—nearly half within the Amazon Basin
Startup powerhouse: Ranked #1 in South America and #27 globally in startup ecosystems
Over 14,000 active startups, many are in agri-tech, green innovation, and climate solutions

Global ecological importance

One of the five megaforest countries, with 310 million hectares of public forests—92% of which are in the Amazon.
Home to unique biomes: the Amazon, Caatinga, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Pampa, and Pantanal—all under serious threat of degradation.

Urgent need of action

In 2020, 312,140 km2 of land were burned, nearly half of it within the Amazon Basin.
Severe droughts and increasing desertification are on the rise.

Commitments

The restoration sector in Brazil could generate between 1 and 2.5 million jobs by 2030.
Brazil has committed to restoring 22 million hectares by 2030 through the Bonn Challenge, Planaveg and other national plans.

Leader in startup ecosystem

Regional leadership: Ranked 1st in South America and 27th globally in startup ecosystems.
High startup density: home to approximately 14,000 active startups.

22M+

Ha committed

To restore by 2030

Our G20 GLI Approach

Local delivery partners: working with leading BSOs, youth networks, and NGOs
Adapted grantmaking
Monitoring and learning to refine scalable delivery models
Ecosystem coordination through private–public collaboration

Activities are kicking off soon—stay tuned for opportunities, events, calls for applications, and partnership announcements!

Director's Message

The year 2024 was pivotal for the Global Land Initiative. Land degradation and restoration remained prominent on the global policy agenda throughout.

The UN Environmental Assembly, G7 Leaders’ Summit, G20 Environment and Climate Change Ministers’ meeting, and BRICS Leaders’ Summit addressed land degradation and committed to scaling up land restoration efforts.

The European Union passed a new Restoration Law mandating quantitative targets for land restoration. The UNFCCC, UNCBD and UNCCD Conferences of the Parties (COPs), held during the last quarter of the year, reinforced land restoration as a crucial solution to combat land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Building on this favorable policy momentum, the Global Land Initiative continued to develop and deliver a robust program. In collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), we completed a database on Global Restoration Commitments by countries under the UNCCD, UNCBD, UNFCCC and the Bonn Challenge.

Representing a significant increase in global commitments since 2021, the total global commitment now stands at 1.2 billion hectares, with 30 countries, including 11 G20 members, pledging to restore over 10 million hectares each.

The UNCCD, with financial support from the Global Land Initiative, published the first global restoration economy international report, titled, Investing in Land’s Future: Financial needs assessment for UNCCD. The report defines the private sector’s growing role in land restoration and its potential for creating green jobs.

The study outlines key recommendations to support the growth of the restoration economy, which has an associated market survey valued at $37 billion globally, growing at 8.2% annually and is projected to reach $70 billion by 2031. Together, these studies stressed the need for focused policy action to encourage private sector investment and engagement in the restoration economy.

Working with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Global Land Initiative launched the first cohort of the “Global Ecopreneurs Program,” training 100 young entrepreneurs from restoration startups. These entrepreneurs received training on improving business plans and pitching to investors. We plan to scale this program regionally to reach 10,000 ecopreneurs by 2029.

Training remained a cornerstone of the Global Land Initiative, with programs on the restoration of mining areas, of urban lands, of lowland-based systems, of drylands and with biosaline agriculture. These trainings consistently attracted more applications than available slots. To accommodate this high demand and broader participation, we also conducted online webinars on these topics, in English, Arabic and French.

The first University Curriculum Course on Sustainable Agriculture for Land Restoration was launched this year. It reached over 400 university teachers, with over 100 trained on implementing the curriculum. A university module on urban land restoration is in its final stages.

Representatives from 25 countries attended the second Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians held in Bonn. With the European Union Restoration Law’s passage, global best practices can now be discussed and adapted to national contexts.

The Global Land Initiative’s visibility surged with participation in the G20 Environment and Climate Change Working Group meetings in Brazil, the COPs of the UNCBD and UNCCD and 7 other international exhibitions. In December, the Initiative, in partnership with Germany’s Federal Museum of Arts and Sciences, opened the Save Land: United for Land Museum Exhibition, the first museum exhibition on land restoration, which will run until June 2025.

Online engagement grew, reaching over 35,000 newsletter subscribers and over 14,000 followers across social media platforms, and a global reach of nearly 400,000. The Global Photography Festival, which attracted 17,000 entries from 154 countries, further boosted visibility.

The Global Restoration Information Hub was launched in July 2024. It is a compilation of globally available data on land restoration from credible sources. The site provides information on global best practices, restoration commitments, best practice legislations, documentaries, restoration actors and other databases.

The Initiative issued a global call for communities and NGOs to submit their restoration projects for small grant support, receiving over 600 submissions from 100 countries. Forty-one projects from XX countries were selected for funding.

[Statement on faith, if the faith report is finalized]

The G20 Global Land Initiative Steering Committee was kept informed of developments through regular communication. It met in July and continues to provide guidance on program implementation. It received the work plan for 2025-26; an exciting period of action is ahead.

Executive Director's Message

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo.

Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus.

Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus.

Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget eros faucibus tincidunt. Duis leo. Sed fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc,