A key part of our mission to conserve the Atlantic Rainforest of the upper Guapiaçu river basin is our reforestation programme. Throughout the year, seeds of pioneer tree species are collected from the forest by our rangers and to be planted in our tree nursery. In 2010 we built a new nursery to increase our tree planting capacity. Our staff, headed up by Mauricio Noqueira, and internation volunteers, plant and germinate the seeds in the nursery throughout the year. Then during our wet season, January to March, the saplings are transpanted to a prepared site. This is difficult very hot work, but it allows us to return areas of impoverished farmland back into forest cover.

In 2011, as part of their Positive Wood initiative to protect and plant more trees than they use in their packaging, The Body Shop teamed up with the World Land Trust to help REGUA plant native Atlantic Forest trees. In early 2011, The Body Shop firstly funded the acquisition of a very valuable piece of 32 ha forested land located in the Matumbo area adjacent to the ex-Lemgruber property. Further generous funding allowed us to plant 5,000 endemic Atlantic Forest tree species on this land. These trees were planted on a 3 ha area on a hillside near the village of Matumbo, which lies within the area of the reserve put forward RPPN reserve (Private Reserve for the Patrimony of Nature) status, to which we have committed to reforest all grassland areas. This area of grassland has frequently caught fire, another good reason to reforest it.

Also in the 2011/12 season we planted an additional 27,000 trees elsewhere on the reserve. This brings the total number of trees planted at REGUA since 2005 to 130,000! Many thanks to the World Land Trust and to The Body Shop for their tremendous support.