Hey, first of all you should refer to the classic Priority Areas and Actions for Conservation of Mata Atlântica in Brazil that was produced by MMA: http://www.conservation.org.br/publicacoes/files/Sumario.pdf. Than, depending on what region you are at, you should refer to the regional (by state) Priority Areas, such as the one for Minas Gerais: http://www.biodiversitas.org.br/atlas/sintese.pdf. There are specific ones, for São Paulo, Northeast and South regions. The next step would be to narrow to specific cases (based on rare species distributions) and regions such as the ones describe in the bibliography. A good start would be to look at the projects developed by the Apllied Ecology Lab at the Universidade de Goiás. Here is one example: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2009.00625.x/full. What region are you at, and what is this project about (if you can share this info).

Sincere thanks, Bernardo, for the EXCELLENT reply. It has given me plenty of homework and made clear that there are still many doors to knock on. I hope you won't mind if yours is among them. You enquired:

> What region are you at, and what is this project about..?

Because I am involved in an ambitious conservation project in Portugal, my hope is that the Brazilian reserve will be close enough to an international transport hub so the place is not too inaccessible for me or for future researchers. However, illegal logging, palmito harvesting or hunting can apparently be a challenge within ~100 km of urban centres. For various reasons the site chosen will probably be mountainous. So the area presently under consideration is 100-200 km from the coast from Espírito Santo down to Santa Catarina or possibly in the Belo Horizonte or São Paulo regions.

Ideally, the reserve will contain significant vestiges of primary forest but will require reforestation and restoration elsewhere. Ideally, also, it will serve as a vital corridor between existing reserves or as an expansion and buffer for a national or regional park.

Any comments or further questions you have will be very welcome. Again, many thanks.

Hi, Thank you. I am glad I could help. Actually I am form Belo Horizonte and know several potential areas all over Brazil (especially in Minas Gerais) that can be suitable according to your description. If the focus is forest corridor you should take a look at this document which describe one of the potentiall corridors in Mata Atlântica: http://www.conservation.org.br/publicacoes/files/CorredorCentraldaMataAtlantica.pdf

I'd like to help you. Feel free to get in touch as much as you want. I am currently a PhD. student at the Institute for Resources and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia and I am much interested in being part of any conservation project, especially in Brazil.

My e-mail is: [email protected]

I have lots of expertise and networking in forest restoration as well.

Good Luck.

Hi Bernardo,

you may contact the Brazilian NGO SPVS, which maintains large forest areas as RPPN in Paraná. See http://www.inbioveritas.net/pt-br/quem_somos/SPVS

They have a restoration program and are much interested in research.

Best wishes

Many thanks, Hubert. This is a promising lead and will be pursued today.

If you or a colleague's research is pertinent here I hope you will let me know.

Antonio

Adding a couple more things, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment in the end of 2013 published an actualization of this prioritization, which also includes prioritization for restoration and many other aspects. You can download the book from their website here: http://www.mma.gov.br/publicacoes/biodiversidade/category/142-serie-biodiversidade?download=1001:serie-biodiversidade-biodiversidade-49

Also, in the last couple of years, in the State of São Paulo, several organizations including governmental ones, conducted an in deep study (getting in touch with landowners, evaluating the properties documents, etc) to evaluate the potential of some areas for conservation unit creation. One of this studied areas was transformed in park during the Rio+20 summit in 2012 (http://www.rbma.org.br/penap/penap.pdf), however, the several other ones are still waiting for a “political suitable environment” (what hopefully will not take 20 years!). Most of these areas are around or in the border of the larger remnant of Atlantic Forest in Brazil, and some of them are incredible well preserved.

You may also try this Thesis that deals with water and vegetation

http://dspace.c3sl.ufpr.br:8080//dspace/handle/1884/19168

Dear Antonio, in São Paulo, you should check for the results of FAPESP-BIOTA project, as it produced a set of maps of priority areas for conservation in the State, based on a vast research program. These maps and studies were considered equivalent to legal enforcements and all development and conservation projects/policies must consult this material.

For more information, please check these links:

http://www.fapesp.br/biota/

http://www.biota.org.br/?page_id=20

http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/2008/05/01/com-forca-de-lei/

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bn/v6n2/v6n2a01.pdf

http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/7878

For your demands, I think that many of protected areas located along or close to "Serra do Mar" ridge and on the coastal zone would be appropriate. You can find some information on the State protected areas at:

http://www.ambiente.sp.gov.br/ambiente/parques-e-unidades-de-conservacao/

If you need further information, my e-mail is [email protected]

Regards

Denis

Alexandre,

After a year during which scores of appeals for Mata Atlântica RPPN information were sent fruitlessly to over a dozen NGOs and government agencies, a single request on ResearchGate has inundated me with valuable data. I haven't had time to retrieve, still less review, the MMA book you recommend but I am sure it will prove valuable.

The second RBMA work has already been useful. Sincere thanks. And it is personally interesting because a specimen of one of the very threatened palms mentioned has grown in my garden for several years.

You commented:

> ...the several other [areas] are still waiting for a “political suitable environment” (that hopefully will not take 20 years!).

Of course. Perhaps, remembering Margaret Mead's“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”, one small NGO can help create that environment.

Dear Denis,

Yet another first rate reply to keep me productively occupied for plenty of time. Thank you so much.

Will try to write tomorrow.

Um abraço,

Antonio

Dear Denis,

As an additional suggestion, please keep in mind that the Mata Atlântica Biome contains other, non-forest ecosystem types that are often neglected in conservation initiatives.

For instance, enclaves of high altitude grasslands occur throughout the SE and S portions of the Mata Atlântica Biome, which are threatened by uncontrolled land use conversion in private areas and by management suppression within conservation units. In some regions these grasslands are on the verge of complete disappearance.

Some references:

Scarano, F.R. 2002. Structure, Function and Floristic Relationships of Plant Communities in Stressful Habitats Marginal to the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. Annals of Botany 90: 517-524. DOI:10.1093/aob/mcf189

Pillar, V.D. & Vélez, E. 2010. Extinção dos Campos Sulinos em Unidades de Conservação: um fenômeno natural ou um problema ético? Natureza & Conservacao 8: 84-86. DOI: 10.4322/natcon.00801014

Also this thesis:

http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/41/41134/tde-04092007-155115/publico/Carlos_Alberto_de_Mattos_Scaramuzza.pdf

I wish you success in finding a suitable area for this RPPN initiative.

Thank you, Valério, for today's thoughts. You are quite right about the precarious state of many remnants of the Brazilian Campos. But we are a small NGO and can only do so much. Moreover, even grasslands with flagship spp such as the páramos of Bolivia and Peru (where we worked for years) with their spectacular yet only recently Red Listed Puya raimondii sentinels are largely ignored by the pertinent authorities, NGOs and researchers. The situation in Brazil may leave much to be desired but from what I have begun to see, not least thanks to the valuable contributions of you and other Brazilian researchers in this forum, biodiversity elsewhere is in worse shape.

There are some very nice remnants of those Campos de Altitudes in south Minas Gerais. If you want to check on them let me know. I can arrange field trips.

Cheers

After a year of repeated but fruitless attempts to obtain information on private reserves in Brazil from normal channels, the valuable response of several ResearchGate members was nothing short of gratifying. My sincere thanks to all and especially to those who provided individual contacts for further enquiries. But messages to these contacts appear to have gone astray and much information is still needed to generate a shortlist of sites before a trip can be made.

Details about formalities, threats and, above all, land should be available from various state RPPN and environment bodies. But questions to them also remain unanswered and most association websites are out.

Adding to growing uncertainties about the level of official and even NGO interest in conservation initiatives are troubling declarations such as:

"Brazil [portrays] itself as a model country when it comes to the environment. But rampant exploitation continues in the country's Amazon region, where environmentalists are threatened by hit squads" in

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/environmentalists-risk-their-lives-in-un-summit-host-brazil-a-839687.html . And

"Brazil is considered the most dangerous country in which to work as an environmentalist today" in

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-do-environmentalists-keep-getting-killed-around-world-180949446/ .

So I am compelled to resort to the forum again. Comments from ResearchGaters on all of these discouraging points will be most welcome.

Dear Colleagues (if any of you are still following this years-old issue),

For a range of reasons the project originally described for the Mata Atlântica has finally found its home in Costa Rica.  Brazil could learn much from Costa Rica, and not just environmentally.  But one area where I believe Costa Rica could learn from Brazil concerns its Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural private reserve initiative which I would like to promote in Central America.  If anyone can recommend a document that concisely but persuasively outlines the RPPN concept, I would be happy to hear from you.

Technically, the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) is a servitude of public use, something that is present is most national legal systems. The difference in Brazil is that this concept was instrumentalised by the government in order to create protected areas. In other words, while in other countries this concept can be used to protect an area, they do not receive recognition as a protected area (see the concept of protected area from IUCN, one of the elements for a protection zone to be considered a protected area is to be recognised as such, normally by legal means). There's a great deal of documents explaining what a RPPN is. One of the main Brazilian authorities in this topic is Sonia Wiedman, who drafted law project n. 1.548/2015.

Caro André Olavo Leite,

            Agradeço sua resposta informativa recente.  O projecto descrito originalmente agora decorre na Costa Rica onde já tenho feito referência regular às RPPNs brasileiras.  Mas actualmente o assunto é particularmente relevante aqui em Portugal onde sou parte de uma iniciativa ambiciosa para criar uma reserva numa bacia de 250km².

            Comentou: (Respondo em inglês porque talvez queira partilhar isto com outros.)

> Technically, the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) is a servitude of public use, something that is present is most national legal systems.

            That I did not know.  (Strictly I am neither an environmentalist nor a lawyer but an architect.)

> The difference in Brazil is that this concept was instrumentalised by the government in order to create protected areas.

            A much-needed and commendable initiative.

> In other words, while in other countries this concept can be used to protect an area, they do not receive recognition as a protected area (see the concept of protected area from IUCN, one of the elements for a protection zone to be considered a protected area is to be recognised as such, normally by legal means).

            Exactly.  In the case of Portugal and its Natura areas, however, de jure protection exists but it is manifestly not de facto.  Indeed, because the authorities here have for years refused to implement concrete protective measures the country, as you may see in http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-356_EN.htm , is being taken to court.

> There's a great deal of documents explaining what a RPPN is. One of the main Brazilian authorities in this topic is Sonia Wiedman, who drafted law project n. 1.548/2015.

            Fine.  In fact I have been in touch briefly with Sónia and it occurs to me now that there might be some value in contacting her again about both Portugal and Costa Rica.

            Still, any further thoughts you may have will be welcome.

            Novamente, André, obrigado.

            Antonio