Restoring the Amazon Forest at Scale: An ethnography of digital technologies in ecological restoration in Brazil

Objective

Ecological restoration has increasingly been promoted as a crucial strategy for mitigating global climate change. In the Amazon Forest, this has been reflected by the Brazilian plan to transform the “Arc of Deforestation”, where degradation is more intense, into the “Arc of Restoration”, where 12 million hectares will be restored by 2030. To reach this scale, restoration initiatives are increasingly relying on digital technologies, such as planetary data platforms, remote sensing, and AI, to increase automation, improve decision-making, and reduce costs. Despite the prominence that restoration has acquired, little is known about how these technologies are shaping restoration practices on the ground, or how ecological complexity, local knowledge, and global demands are negotiated in this scaling up of restoration. ReAmazon fills this gap by proposing a qualitative empirical study of the role digital technologies play in the scaling of ecological restoration in the Amazon. The research will use ethnography to study the case of Mombak, a startup that develops high-integrity carbon credits through restoration, has big tech companies like Google and Microsoft as clients, and is expanding by replicating its tech-driven approach across numerous private properties. The project will follow activities at the company’s office in São Paulo, where monitoring software and reporting systems are developed, and at its experimental farm in Pará (Amazon), where seedling nurseries, planting, and restoration experiments are carried out. The research will analyze how restoration at scale negotiates between standardization and promoting socio-biodiversity (O1); and how digital technologies mediate the transformation of scientific and local knowledge into digital data in restoration sites (O2). In doing so, ReAmazon will contribute to STS debates on the increasing centrality of digital technologies in governing climate change, while aligning with the EU twin green and digital transitions.