Workshop: The Role of Long-Distance Trails as Landscape Connectors: The Case of the Brazilian Trails Network
In 2025, Brazil’s National System of Protected Areas (SNUC) reached 25 years, encompassing 12 categories of protected areas and ecological corridors. While SNUC has delivered important conservation gains, it has often been managed as a collection of individual sites rather than as an integrated system. This has contributed to habitat fragmentation and challenges in creating functional landscape connectors between protected areas.
This workshop examines how Brazil is addressing these challenges through the Brazilian Trails Network and Connectivity (REDE), implemented under the CONECTA Brazil Program. REDE is built on three pillars—landscape connectivity and conservation, job and income generation, and recreation. Its long-term goal is to connect all of Brazil’s protected areas through trails within natural corridors (greenways), supporting wildlife migration while delivering social and economic benefits. To date, more than 10,500 km of trails have been implemented under the REDE policy.
By the end of this workshop, participants will:
- Understand the limitations and opportunities of protected area systems managed at a national scale
- Learn how trails can function as tools for landscape connectivity and wildlife conservation
- Explore how REDE integrates conservation, livelihoods, and recreation into a single policy framework
- Gain practical insights from Brazil’s experience implementing a nationwide connectivity network
- Identify strategies that can be adapted to connectivity and trail initiatives in other regions
Pedro Cunha E Menezes, Director, Brazilian Trails Network
