11 November 2013: The World Bank has reported on the impacts of reforestation efforts around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including species recovery, reduced vulnerability to natural disasters, and new economic benefits from the generation of carbon credits.

The feature notes that landslides are less common, as are fires, now that grasslands have been reforested. Furthermore, a cooler microclimate is reducing heat exposure in the hills around the city where the slums are usually located. The World Bank notes that efforts thus far have included a combination of community-led reforestation initiatives and formal investments such as the Rio Capital Verde project run by the municipal government.

Based on successes achieved thus far, the World Bank announced that its Rio Low Carbon City Program will provide advice to the municipal government and support the assessment and verification of carbon credits generated through reforestation. In doing so, the World Bank reports that the project is an important component of Rio’s objective to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020, when compared to 2005 levels. Furthermore, the project is intended to capture good practices and lessons learned from the Rio experience and disseminate them to other cities throughout the world. [World Bank Press Release on Reforestation] [World Bank Press Release on Green House Gasses in Rio de Janeiro]