Future trends for biodiversity in urban afforestation of São Paulo, Brazil: insights for the restoration decade

ABSTRACT São Paulo city has three municipal nurseries for the distribution of urban tree specimens that meet the demand for its public landscape projects and increase in tree covering. One of them (Manequinho Lopes) receives tree seedlings from the environmental compensation processes contracted with the Municipal Secretariat for Green and Environment (MSGE). This paper aimed to evaluate the scenario of tree biodiversity received between July 2013 and July 2018 by the Manequinho Lopes nursery, as a measure of environmental compensation. The results indicated that 144,727 tree seedlings were received by the nursery, with approximately 80% of the total belonging to only 30 species, half of them belonging to only 10 different groups. We found just two predominated families: Myrtaceae and Bignoniaceae, highlighting a biotic homogenization risk. Regarding ecological attributes, it was found that 33% of the species were zoochoric, 16% autochorous and 22% anemochoric. Most of them were non-endangered specimens.