From Burgers to Biodiversity: How Apple Is Turning Livestock Land Into a Climate Lab With Forests and Profits

Apple is participating in one of the most extensive environmental experiments to bring life back to degraded land. It’s not just about image—the company is trying to neutralize its carbon footprint while helping restore ecosystems on a massive scale.

For decades, vast tracts of Brazil’s Cerrado—the great unknown of the world’s ecosystems—have fed the global appetite for meat. Forests and grasslands have been turned into pastures to grow soybeans and raise cattle that eventually become hamburger meat.

An Experiment Led by Apple

The Cerrado isn’t the Amazon, although at 737,469 square miles, it’s almost as large as Texas, California and Montana combined. It’s the world’s second most biodiverse tropical ecosystem, home to more than 1,600 animal and 10,000 plant species. However, it’s also a major casualty of Brazilian agribusiness. In just half a century, the region has lost more than half its original vegetation—cleared to make way for cattle ranches and crops to feed the world.

In 2022, Apple partnered with Conservation International and a Brazilian forestry group to launch Project Alpha, a $400 million investment. More than 24,700 acres of degraded land—nearly twice the size of Manhattan—are now seeing the return of native plants and animals. Cameras and sensors are documenting the comeback of species that have lived only in books for years: cougars, native rabbits and forgotten plants are reappearing.

Forest areas converted into pastures.

Why is Apple doing this? The answer is a mix of environmental strategy, necessity and opportunity. While the company has reduced its emissions by 60% since 2015 and aims to shrink its footprint by 75% by 2030, there’s still a stubborn 25% for which no large-scale technological solution exists. No matter how many chargers it eliminates or how much plastic it cuts, Apple inevitably creates emissions it can’t avoid. Now, it’s found a way to get more from this effort than just reducing carbon emissions.

The Mixed (and Somewhat Controversial) Model of Restoration

Restoring the Cerrado isn’t easy. Invasive grasses planted over decades complicate the return of native species, and the cost of restoration is extremely high without an economic model to support it.

About half the land is dedicated to restoring native vegetation through assisted regeneration and seed planting. The other half is used for eucalyptus plantations—a species native to Australia that grows rapidly in degraded soil and sequesters large amounts of carbon dioxide.

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Eucalyptus in Brazil? That’s right. Apple and its partners have devised an unusual formula: eucalyptus forestry. On the most degraded soils—where native vegetation has little chance—eucalyptus grows quickly, absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide and, if well managed, supports the global paper market without harming other forests.

The result? Half the land thrives with native species, while the other half grows productive eucalyptus trees that end up as iPhone boxes or recyclable packaging. It’s a win-win situation. Conservationists admit that large-scale restoration wouldn’t be possible without it. In the end, everyone benefits: biodiversity returns, the climate improves and there’s a (sustainable) business for those committed to change.

Since 2017, all wood fiber used in Apple packaging has come from responsible sources, including eucalyptus trees in Brazil.

When the iPhone Becomes an Environmental Tool

This is where the story gets even more interesting. Apple isn’t just putting its money where its technological mouth is. Its engineers are testing tools like the iPhone’s LiDAR scanner to measure tree diameters and accurately track the growth of restored vegetation.

Researchers use the iPhone’s LiDAR scanner and the ForestScanner app to create 3D maps of the area.

Transparency is key. Before any carbon credits are sold, a third party audits the project. That’s how Apple and its partners set themselves apart from environmental offset programs that have overstated claims or failed to show real impact.

As a result, this initiative boosts active restoration in the Cerrado region by 50%. Apple and the forestry group earn carbon credits for absorbing carbon dioxide, while biodiversity rebounds. There’s fire monitoring, protection against land invasion and a new alliance between economics and ecology—where technology and forestry work side by side.

However, there are valid criticisms of eucalyptus use, and the long-term sustainability of this mixed model remains to be seen. But for the first time in decades, the Cerrado is more than a pawn in the global meat trade. It’s a laboratory for the future—where Apple, NGOs and corporations are proving that restoring nature can be profitable, scalable and replicable.

Images | Natalie Runnerstrom (Unsplash) | Apple | Adriano Gambarini (WWF-Brasil) | Nicholas Santoianni (Unsplash) |

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