From Extraction to Connection is a storytelling talk and personal journey through 25 years of conservation in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, centered on the Santa Maria Ecological Corridor and the RPPN Santa Maria. Giovanna O Silvestri shares how a landscape once shaped by timber extraction and agricultural expansion became part of a pioneering effort to protect, restore, and reconnect fragmented forest habitats. Through ecological restoration, scientific research, public-private collaboration, wildlife conservation, and environmental education, the story reveals an important lesson: restoring nature requires more than planting trees. It also requires rebuilding our relationship with the natural world. Through stories and experiences across generations, From Extraction to Connection explores a profound shift in how we relate to nature — from seeing it primarily as a resource to understanding it as a living, interconnected system essential to our own existence.