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The Investment Announced by BNDES and the Heineken Group Allocates Up to R$ 10 Million for Forest Restoration in 35 Municipalities Located in the Beberibe Aquifer Recharge Area in Pernambuco.
This investment is also connected to environmental recovery, climate adaptation, and local income generation. The proposal is to support up to three projects presented by non-profit organizations, under the Floresta Viva program, managed by the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund, Funbio.
The area covered is in a transition zone between Atlantic Forest and Caatinga and faces increasing pressure on water resources. In this context, the investment combines environmental conservation and protection of water supply, focusing on ecosystem services that directly impact urban life and regional production.
Investment Concentrates Efforts in the Beberibe Aquifer Recharge Area
The new investment was directed towards forest restoration in an area considered crucial for the recharge of the Beberibe Aquifer. This means acting precisely in the territory that helps maintain the replenishment of groundwater, a central point for the region’s water security.
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The public call outlined by the initiative will select up to three projects from civil associations, private foundations, and cooperatives with at least two years of operation. The logic of the investment is not merely to finance planting, but to structure actions that can recover important ecological functions for the territory.
Beberibe Aquifer Plays a Strategic Role in Water Supply
The Beberibe Aquifer is described in the database as one of the main underground water reserves in the Northeast. According to the National Water Agency, it is primarily responsible for supplying the metropolitan regions of Recife, in Pernambuco, and João Pessoa, in Paraíba.
This helps to frame the relevance of the investment. By targeting the recharge area of the aquifer, the project acts on a resource that supplies millions of people. Protecting the aquifer, in this case, means protecting the water consumed by entire urban centers.
Public Notice Provides Support for Non-Profit Institutions
The selection will be made through a public call aimed at non-profit institutions, such as civil associations, private foundations, and cooperatives. The proposal provides support for up to three projects, indicating a search for initiatives with implementation capacity and territorial impact.
This format shows that the investment will not be applied in a dispersed manner. The intention is to concentrate resources on structured proposals, with the potential to restore priority areas and strengthen the local chain of ecological restoration.
BNDES Links Investment to Water Security and Climate Adaptation
According to BNDES’s Socio-Environmental Director, Tereza Campello, the public notice reinforces the bank’s role in the water security and climate adaptation agenda.
The evaluation presented is that restoring the recharge area of the Beberibe Aquifer strengthens the climate resilience of the Northeast and helps ensure essential ecosystem services for water supply.
Moreover, the bank emphasizes that this investment can boost a new green economy in the areas served. Restoration emerges not just as an environmental action, but also as an opportunity to generate green jobs, professional training, and local income.
Heineken Highlights Water as the Central Axis of the Initiative
In the view of the Heineken Group, water is the central point of the project. The company states that restoring forest areas is essential to ensure water availability in the future, especially because native vegetation promotes water infiltration into the soil, reduces erosion, and helps decrease river contamination.
The investment is also related to the industrial presence of the company in the region. Igarassu houses the company’s main industrial hub in the Northeast, which has received over R$ 1.2 billion in investments in recent years. Nevertheless, the declared focus of the new initiative is on socio-environmental impact and the improvement of water conditions.
Area Under Water Pressure Reinforces Urgency of Restoration
The database indicates that technical studies developed by the Heineken Group point to critical levels of water scarcity in the region covered by the public notice. This makes the investment even more relevant, as the area covered is not only facing a conservation need but also concrete signs of pressure on water availability.
In this context, forest restoration is treated as a practical response to recover the functions of the territory. Native vegetation helps to reorganize the relationship between soil, water, and vegetation cover, reducing losses and strengthening the capacity for retention and infiltration.
Floresta Viva Enters a New Phase with Expanded Scope
The initiative is part of Floresta Viva, a BNDES program aimed at ecological restoration in Brazilian biomes. So far, according to the database, 15 public notices have been launched with 14 different donors, covering 53 supported projects.
The program reaches 8,649 hectares in restoration, 56 conservation units, and 13 indigenous lands, distributed across 17 states, the Federal District, and 128 municipalities.
The mobilized volume amounts to about R$ 425 million, with BNDES’s participation limited to up to 50% of the resources. This history helps to show that the new investment in the Beberibe Aquifer is part of a broader and already expanding strategy.
New Phase Includes Biodiversity and Training for Green Jobs
In 2025, Floresta Viva entered a new phase, called Floresta Viva 2. In addition to forest restoration, the program began incorporating tools for assessing biodiversity credits and intensified investments in training workers linked to so-called green jobs.
This detail broadens the scope of the current investment. It is not just about recovering forest cover but also about strengthening an economic structure associated with restoration, with professional training and new lines of action in the served territories.
Northeast Gains Project That Unites Water, Forest, and Local Development
The announcement by BNDES and Heineken brings together three fronts that often appear separately: water protection, ecological restoration, and local development. By focusing on the recharge area of the Beberibe Aquifer, the project attempts to address the root of a problem affecting supply, environmental balance, and climate resilience.
The investment of R$ 10 million gains relevance precisely because it tackles a structural issue, rather than limiting itself to a one-off action. If the restoration progresses as planned, the effect could be felt in both water security and income generation, as well as in organizing a chain of environmental recovery in the Northeast.
In your opinion, can this investment in forest restoration become a model for protecting other aquifer recharge areas in Brazil?
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