BRAZIL — A project in the Amazon rainforest is using a new technique to plant trees in the largest ever tropical reforestation.
Conservation International plans to restore 70,000 acres of land cleared for grazing with 73 million trees, Fast Company reported.
The trees will be planted in the "arc of deforestation" that stretches across the Brazilian states of Amazonas, Acre, Pará and Rondônia, as well as the Xingu watershed.
The planting method is called muvuca, which is Portuguese for a small place with many people.
The muvuca method involves spreading hundreds of native tree seeds of various species over deforested land.
Natural selection then allows the most suited trees to grow and thrive in a much thicker density than plant-by-plant reforestation.
Plant-by-plant techniques usually have a density of 160 plants per hectare, while with muvuca, the density is 2,500 species per hectare. Scientists believe after 10 years, it could reach 5,000 trees per hectare.
