According to data published by the Brazilian Forest Service, almost 7 million properties are registered in the Rural Environmental Registry, where, according to the Panorama report of the Brazilian Forest Code of the Federal University of Minas Gerais of 2023, there are around 20 million hectares with environmental liabilities that need to be regularized, with approximately 16 million hectares characterized as Legal Reserve areas and more than 3 million hectares in Permanent Preservation Areas.

Many rural producers, including small producers, have already expressed that they would just like to comply with the law, as they barely have the time and knowledge to carry out the agricultural activities underway on the property. Federal Law 12,651 of 2012 provides, in areas of Legal Reverse, sustainable management activities that consist of the administration of natural vegetation with a view to obtaining economic, social and environmental benefits, and also respecting the support mechanisms of the ecosystem subject to management, which may be with or without economic purpose.

Another planned modality is low-impact activities, such as the collection of non-timber products, such as seeds, nuts and fruits, for subsistence purposes and seedling production, for the planting of native fruit-producing species, such as seeds, nuts and others. vegetable products, and also agroforestry exploration and sustainable, community or family forest management.

All of this may seem simple to implement from the legislator's point of view. However, if the rural producer already has difficulties in properly managing agricultural activities on the property, we have to consider not only how he will include these environmental management activities in his daily life, but also how to create logistical and technical knowledge so that he can incorporate this understanding into his actions to restore production on the rural property.

As sustainable management activities with low environmental impact depend on authorization from the competent body, it would be necessary to create procedures that facilitate their incorporation into the daily life of rural properties.

This requires tools to reduce bureaucracy in carrying out practices that help not to distort the vegetation cover by facilitating the conservation of native vegetation. The maintenance of diversity with the use of local native species and the appropriate management of exotic species planted in consortium, in an accurate manner, should favor the regeneration of the native species considered in the recomposition and, also, provide an economic return to the producer.

Four methods are provided for in Law 12,651 of 2012: a) conducting natural regeneration of native species, b) planting native species, c) planting native species combined with conducting natural regeneration of native species, and, finally, d ) the interspersed planting of exotic perennial or long-cycle woody species with regionally occurring native species in up to 50% of the total area to be restored. We already have enough technical information to understand the reality of the rural property and support the producer (or technical responsible) to prepare a good Recomposition Project for Degraded or Altered Areas that meets the relevant needs in environmental and legislative terms.

Law 12,651 has different rules for this recomposition, depending on the size of the rural property. In national terms, 90% of properties are smaller than four fiscal modules, responsible for around 24% of Brazil's agricultural area, while the remaining 10% of properties are responsible for around 76% of the area. The Project for the Recomposition of Degraded or Altered Areas must consider the activities necessary to correctly choose the best restoration proposal and estimate the project costs in the most realistic way possible, in order to guarantee financial and technical viability of the implementation and maintenance actions.

Depending on the area's regeneration potential, established in the environmental liability diagnosis stage and the technique used for restoration, restoration costs can be high. In this way, productive restoration emerges as an alternative for amortizing expenses incurred for intervention and, also, as a possibility of generating income for producers.

Successional agroforestry systems and productive and biodiverse plantations with native species present themselves as a technological solution for the restoration of native vegetation. However, when opting for productive restoration, it is necessary for the producer to be aware of the specific demands and requirements of these production models, especially with regard to labor.

The implementation of restorative models must align the producer's expectations and productive aptitude with the demands of the system, as it is known that agroforestry systems require a greater quantity and intensity of labor for management and harvesting activities. Furthermore, the choice of species is fundamental, considering socio-environmental and economic criteria, points of sale, marketing channels, processing, agro-industries, etc.

The reference vegetation is the final objective to be achieved, and in this way, the species that will make up the system must be able to guarantee and contribute to restoring this vegetation in order to achieve the ecological parameters established in the Environmental Regularization Programs and state regulations. The financial models conducted in the FIP Paisagens Rurais project are composed of two cost centers: 1) control of degradation factors; 2) planting sowing in forest and savanna areas.

To control degradation factors, costs, such as cutting, grass control, shape control and soil recovery, vary from 2,120 reais to 7,225 reais per hectare in the year of implementation, while in the years of maintenance (year 1 and year 2 ) costs reduce to 1,120 reais to 2,736 reais per hectare. In planting, seedling costs were higher than scenarios using direct sowing. On average, the scenarios with seedlings were 18,778 reais per hectare, while the direct seeding models were approximately 9,416.54 reais per hectare. The models with planting seedlings and direct sowing presented an average of 18,886 reais per hectare. In productive restoration, it is essential to amortize high investments and contribute to the generation and diversification of rural producers' income.

We know, however, that rural producers are not yet receptive and prepared to implement complex restoration systems. We also understand that the production chain for restoring native vegetation is made up of several links, involving the seedling and seed production sectors and the technical strategies and models themselves. If some of these links are already established and consolidated (availability of scientific knowledge), on the other hand, public policies and access to credit programs are still lacking for their establishment and full functioning.