A family farm became a reserve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The reserve grew out of the old Fazenda do Carmo, which Hilmar Werner, the great-grandfather of Nicholas Locke, bought in 1907. It farmed crops, sold hardwoods and made cacha\u00e7a, a sugarcane spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nonprofit Associa\u00e7\u00e3o Reserva Ecol\u00f3gica de Guapia\u00e7u, or REGUA, followed in 2001 and made its first land purchase from the Locke family. Nicholas Locke is the reserve’s president, and his wife, Raquel Locke, is vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Atlantic Forest now covers just 12.4 percent of its original extent, according to figures cited in the Oryx paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One million seedlings in the ground<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
REGUA says it has led one of the most significant forest restoration programs in Rio de Janeiro state since 2005. By February 2025, its longtime partner World Land Trust counted 840,000 trees and 1,500 acres (607 hectares) back under forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In December 2025, the reserve announced<\/a> the 1 million mark, saying new fragments of native forest are taking shape on former pasture and eroded land. It puts its work at more than 580 hectares (1,430 acres) restored and 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of forest protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All 52 staff members each planted one seedling at the celebration. “Reforestation is more than planting trees,” said Aline Damasceno, REGUA’s forest engineer, who has worked on the region’s restoration for 20 years. Nicholas Locke credited “a collaborative network built over two decades” of partners, researchers, volunteers and local residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rangers collect most of the seeds in the forest. The nursery can raise up to 100,000 seedlings a year, REGUA says, and up to 180 tree species, according to World Land Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other places have regreened in very different ways, like Niger’s farmland regrown from living stumps<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunting and habitat loss erased tapirs from Rio de Janeiro state. The last confirmed record dates to 1914, in Serra dos \u00d3rg\u00e3os National Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study authors describe Tapirus terrestris as the largest land mammal in Brazil and a survivor of the Neotropical megafauna. The species is listed as Vulnerable. Its Asian cousin is worse off, with barely 2,500 Malayan tapirs left in the wild<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The releases are led by Refauna, a group that returns native animals to Rio’s emptied forests. It started planning for tapirs in 2012. The Laboratory of Ecology and Management of Wild Animals at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro helps coordinate, according to the reserve<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In early September 2025, a new pair arrived from the Trijun\u00e7\u00e3o Wildlife Centre in Bahia for release into the Mosaico Fluminense, a chain of linked parks and reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By that October, REGUA had counted eight calves born in the reserve, which it called “a remarkable indicator of success.” Refauna’s own video that month gave slightly different numbers: 22 free-living tapirs across about 39 square miles (100 square kilometers), and nine calves born in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/regua-hillside-2021-2024.jpg\")
Tapirs had been gone since 1914<\/h2>\n\n\n\n