Xokleng Indigenous people plant thousands of critically endangered pine in Brazil

The Xokleng people of Santa Catarina, Brazil, have planted nearly 100,000 seedlings of the critically endangered Brazilian pine, a tree that once covered much of southern Brazil before its range shrank by roughly 97% over the last century. The effort, led by the Zág Institute, began in 2016 with a plan to grow just 10 trees and has since produced more than 140,000 seedlings over a decade.

Volunteers harvest the tree's edible seeds under ritual guidelines that leave at least 40% for wildlife, and the project has restored more than 1,000 hectares within the Xokleng's 37,000-hectare Ibirama-La Klãnõ Indigenous Territory. The land itself remains only a third of the way through Brazil's legal demarcation process, and organizers say the replanting effort also reinforces their claim to it.

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