Summary: Tree plantations have considerable importance for the Brazilian forest sector today. Brazil harbours the largest area of forest plantations in Latin America. Most of these plantations are industrial monospecific tree plantations with short rotations (6–8 years). They cover about 9.93 million hectares (ha), of which 7.53 million ha are planted with eucalypt (representing about 30 percent of the global area of eucalypt plantations), 1.93 million ha with pine and 0.475 million ha with other species (mostly rubber, acacia, teak and parica). Wood consumption from forest plantations in Brazil was 273 million cubic metres (m3) in 2021, and it is steadily growing, mirroring the global trend (IBÁ, 2022). Current evidence suggests that sustainable management of natural tropical forests will not meet this increasing timber demand, which indicates that plantations and other tree-based systems, such as agroforestry, will be increasingly important in the future. Moreover, the current international momentum towards forest restoration has resulted in very ambitious targets for reforestation and restoration in various biomes of Brazil, which often involve tree planting in all or part of the areas concerned. As described in other chapters of this issue, mixed-species forestry is a promising alternative to monocultures for both production and conservation purposes, as monocultures have a lower capacity to provide diverse ecosystem goods and services than multispecies (mixed) plantations. Yet, this potential remains overlooked in Brazil. On the other hand, very few native tropical tree species are used in commercial plantations, which means that the potential represented by the wealth of Brazilian tropical tree species is not being exploited for production. The reason for this is twofold. Rapidly growing, homogeneous plantations dominate supply for industrial uses while illegal logging in forest remnants in the Amazon supplies the market with hardwood. The increasing frequency and intensity of disturbances associated with climate change, and the growing demand for wood and timber may result in wider adoption of mixed plantation systems in the future. This article describes some important types of mixed-species plantations currently found in Brazil and their potential to contribute to restoration goals as well as production needs. Using Brazil as a case study, we show how mixed plantations can be used in permanent conservation areas and legal reserves, for forest restoration, agroforestry systems and industrial tree plantations.

Publication year: 2023

Types of publication: Journal article

Unit: Embrapa Agrosilvopastoral

Keywords: Floresta, Forest restoration