“Brasil, Chegamos!”: A Journey of Connection, Collaboration, and Commitment

Author: Catharina Vale, G20 GLI Consultant | August 11, 2025

At Instituto Multiplicidades, after our Q&A session
Photo Credit: UNCCD/G20 GLI

Between the lush green of the Atlantic Forest, the red soil of the Cerrado, and the resilient trees of the Caatinga, the first G20 GLI official trip to Brazil to meet ecopreneurs was more than a work trip. It was a journey through biomes, ideas and partnerships. “We started strong, announcing Brasil, estamos chegando

We visited four cities in ten days: São Paulo, Brasília, Teresina and Rio de Janeiro. We met over ten strategic partners, participated in two talks and two panel discussions, and engaged more than 200 ecopreneurs.

Beyond the numbers, what made this mission a success was the energy, openness and commitment of our Brazilian partners, who have been with us from the very beginning.

In Brasília, Instituto Multiplicidades welcomed us for a talk on land restoration. Over 20 startups had gathered to explore how innovation can regenerate landscapes. In Teresina, we held two events at NEON 2025, which is the largest innovation event in Northeast Brazil. It was organized by Sebrae and attended by over 20,000 people.

Our panel and talks brought together voices from startups and accelerators, such as Quintessa and Impact Hub. They showed that restoration is not just a necessity, but a business opportunity, with the experience of young entrepreneur Jessica Dalmaso from Vedac as a case in point.

Four women together pose for a photo in front of banners

Panelist at Neon 2025. Over 20,000 attendees during the 2-days event in Teresina

In Rio, we joined the BRICS Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit. BNDES, Brazil’s national development bank, and other key players reinforced the importance of connecting finance, innovation and restoration.

G20 GLI’s commitment to support startups in land restoration was highlighted by re.green and Fernando de Lucca from Ceres Seeding, a past member of the Youth Ecopreneur Programme. Throughout the trip, we met the partners who are now helping us to shape the next phase of our work.

A panel of five people

Panel at BRICS Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit

Stories that Have Stayed With Us (or The Unforgettable Stories)

Trips that take us where people live and work are always an opportunity to better understand the local context and meet real entrepreneurs. We met powerful, socially impactful ideas grounded in science and knowledge-sharing. Take for example, Gilbués, in southern Piauí, a degraaded area of 805 km² in the semi-arid Caatinga ecosystem, which is affecting around 149,000 people.

Researcher Edson Cavalcanti presented the work of the Nuperade, a research center to support the recovery of degraded areas and combat desertification (in Portuguese: Núcleo de Pesquisa de Recuperação de Áreas Degradadas e Combate à Desertificação).

The Center recently received a boost of new investments, updated infrastructure and a stronger mandate to advance research and recovery efforts in degraded areas

Working in partnership with the local university, they have developed a startup offering innovative irrigation solutions for desertified lands. Meanwhile, in the Cerrado, one of the six main biomes Brazil, another startup is transforming sewage water into fertilizer.

Stories such as these show that land is an important socio-economic asset. And financial institutions and accelerators that choose to invest in land-based innovation and restoration will be at the forefront of the new economy.

Next stop

As we wrapped up this first mission, we were already looking ahead. Following a successful campaign to build capacity in ecopreneurship, we are delighted to continue our partnership with Instituto Terra to plan new events for September.

We are looking to work with national accelerators, innovation hubs and public institutions to support hundreds of ecopreneurs in the country. The restoration economy is growing, with Brazil as a driving force.

Next stop: building capacity, deepening partnerships, and scaling impact. Let’s keep moving – juntos (together) – with collaboration and commitment.

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,

Blog