Under Brazil’s Programme for Private Reserves of Natural Heritage (RPPN), private landowners can voluntarily declare all or any part of their property to be permanently protected. Launched by Federal Decree (1996) and State Decree (1998), the RPPN Programme was revised and incorporated in legislation passed by Congress in 2000. To date, six of Brazil’s 26 states have enacted legislation that mirrors the federal law. Landowners must apply for RPPN status with the Brazilian Environmental Institute or, where laws permit, with local officials. If approval is granted, landowners receive breaks on property taxes and priority access to certain public financing programmes, such as the National Environmental Fund. Under the RPPN programme, land use is restricted to research, environmental education, ecotourism and limited resource extraction. The RPPN has been especially useful as a means of consolidating fragments of natural habitat and creating ecological corridors. Approximately half a million hectares of privately-owned land are now protected by state and federal laws in Brazil, representing just under 0.5 percent of total conservation units in the country. Since 1990, nearly 600 individuals, corporations and activist groups have voluntarily registered private property under the RPPN scheme.

The concept driving this Program is that there is a “desire for conservation” latent in private land owners, since even with the few incentives existing today, there is a continuous growth in the creation of RPPNs, a special type of protected area. The project, therefore, directs resources to projects that provide for the sustainability of the already existing RPPNs, and for the creation of new reserves.Currently, the Alliance for the Conservation of the Atlantic Forest, a partnership between Conservation International - Brasil and Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, is investing a total of US$ 877,000 in the Program through grants from the Fundo de Parceria para Ecossistemas Críticos (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund) and from Bradesco Bank. The Program is funded for a four-year period and has a goal of reaching US$ 1 million to promote the conservation of biodiversity through private owners.The proposed projects to be funded under the Program are anticipated to contribute to a significant increase of area protected in the Biodiversity Corridors of the Atlantic Forest – (8,6 million hectares in the Central Corridor and 7,5 million hectares in the Serra do Mar Corridor).