Ecological restoration provides a range of ecosystem services. However, the social aspects of restoration are rarely reported. This study assesses the socioeconomic effects of the restoration project called “Mutirão Reflorestamento” (MR), located in an urban fragment of Atlantic Forest in Rio de Janeiro. It was conducted a survey in eight communities, involving 139 residents, where 62 worked for the MR Project, and 77 were not directly involved. Data was collected from focus groups (N = 23, totalling 62 participants) and personal interviews (N = 44). They found out that the main positive contributions of the MR Project were job creation and increased income. The presence of Forest was also associated with the improvement of air and life quality, for example through the provision of recreational areas. The lack of formal work benefits and recently reduced budget for the project were indicated as negative aspects of the MR Project. The main recommendations to improve the Project were: enhance communication between city hall, residents and MR participants, and the appraisal and recognition of the project participants. The results represent the voices of communities directly involved and impacted by restoration, and they may contribute to improving restoration projects in tropical countries. Ranking of the participants’ perceptions (project participants – PP and non-project participants – NPP) about “What the forest means to you?” (number of PP = 64 and NPP = 35).

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest has undergone adverse land-use change due to deforestation for urbanization and agriculture. Numerous restoration initiatives have been taken to restore its ecosystem services. Deforested areas have been restored through active intervention or natural regeneration. Understanding the impact of those different reforestation approaches on soil quality should provide important scientific and practical conclusions on increasing forest cover in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome. However, studies evaluating active planting versus natural regeneration in terms of soil recovery are scarce. This study evaluates soil dynamics under those two contrasting strategies at an early stage (<10 years). Reforestation was conducted simultaneously on degraded lands previously used for cattle grazing and compared to an abandoned pasture as a reference system. It was examined soil physicochemical properties such as: pH, soil organic matter content, soil moisture, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Mn, Cu, Al, and soil texture, and presented the costs of both methods. It was found significant differences in restored areas regarding pH, Na, Fe, Mn content, and the cost. Soil moisture was significantly higher in pasture. This research can contribute to better decision-making about which restoration strategy to adopt to maximize restoration success regarding soil quality and ecosystem services in the tropics.

The reduction of tropical forests has generated a loss of ecosystem services across the globe. In Brazil, essential biomes related to water provision (such as the Atlantic Forest and Savanna) have been degraded, compromising water-ecosystem services. Payment for water- ecosystem services (water PES) has been implemented as a tool to stimulate changes in the use and management of these areas. Many water PES projects have emerged in Brazil using forest restoration, aiming to improve water ecosystem services. In this context, this study identified the types of monitoring carried out in Brazilian water PES projects, to include their main characteristics and gaps. Five Brazilian projects were selected for analysis as case studies. Interviews were then conducted with stakeholders to get current data on their monitoring practices. The data from the literature review, case study approach, and interviews were analyzed from the perspective of monitoring guides recommendations. Different aspects were analyzed, such as objectives, institutional arrangements, type of monitoring, indicators, and frequency of monitoring. The study indicates that there is a lack of standardized methods, making it difficult to specify the results of the implemented actions. The central gap is related to benefit monitoring. It is necessary to establish a holistic monitoring system, dealing with the ecosystem as a complex socio-ecological system. Some perspectives to solve the problems were proposed. The results of this work may help not only improve the current and future PES schemes in Brazil but also in other countries, especially developing ones, where vulnerable populations depend upon them.

A soil-centric approach is required to protect soils, to enable these soils to deliver their SES at edaphic maxima and thus support wider above and below-ground ecosystems. To protect Brazil’s wider natural capital, and that of other tropical countries, soil protection measures, such as the incorporation of SES in decision-making needs to be explicitly considered in environmental policy and laws. Combining a SES approach with monetary and non-monetary valuation, and subsequently communicating it using a strategic plan, this paper proposes corridors of understanding about the value of soil and importance of adequate land management for biodiversity and goods provision for local and global population. Through such an approach, a range of stakeholders can be reached and mobilised to encourage sustainability of soil stewardship and to elevate appropriate management of soil resource on decision-makers’ agenda.

Restoring forest ecosystems has become a global priority. Yet, soil dynamics are still poorlyassessed among restoration studies and there is a lack of knowledge on how soil is affected by forestrestoration process. The study compiles information on soil dynamics in forest restoration based on soil phys-ical, chemical, and biological attributes in temperate and tropical forest regions. It encompasses 50 scien-tific papers across 17 different countries and contains 1,469 points of quantitative information of soilattributes between reference (e.g., old-growth forest) and restored ecosystems (e.g., forests in their initial orsecondary stage of succession) within the same study. To be selected, studies had to be conducted in forestecosystems, to include multiple sampling sites (replicates) in both restored and reference ecosystems, andto encompass quantitative data of soil attributes for both reference and restored ecosystems. We recordedin each study the following information: (1) study year, (2) country, (3) forest region (tropical or temper-ate), (4) latitude, (5) longitude, (6) soil class, (7) past disturbance, (8) restoration strategy (active or pas-sive), (9) restoration age, (10) soil attribute type (physical, chemical, or biological); (11) soil attribute, (12)soil attribute unit, (13) soil sampling (procedures), (14) date of sampling, (15) soil depth sampled, (16) soilanalysis, (17) quantitative values of soil attributes for both restored and reference ecosystems, (18) type ofvariation (standard error of deviation) for both restored and reference ecosystems, and (19) quantitativevalues of the variation for both restored and reference ecosystems. These were the most common dataavailable in the selected studies. This extensive database on the extent soil physical, chemical, and biologicalattributes differ between reference and restored ecosystems can fill part of the existing gap on both soilscience and forest restoration in terms of (1) which are the critical soil attributes to be monitored duringforest restoration? and (2) how do environmental factors affect soil attributes in forest restoration? Thedata will be made available to the scientific community for further analyses on both soil science and forestrestoration. Soil information gaps during the forest restoration process and their general patterns can beaddressed using this data set. There are no copyright or proprietary restrictions.