Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) · Brazil · 11,399 hectares
Cristalino Reserve
A private wall against the arc of deforestation.
Cristalino Reserve: the numbers, sourced
As of July 2026.
- 11,399 hectares — of private rainforest reserve on the southern rim of the Amazon. Cristalino Lodge; IUCN, 2025.
- 1997 — the first RPPN in northern Mato Grosso, grown from a ~12,000-ha land purchase in the early 1990s. Cristalino; oeco.org.br, 1990s–1997.
- 1,200+ plant species, 3 new to science — recorded in the reserve, across eight classified forest types. Cristalino / IUCN, 2025.
- 1999 — Fundação Ecológica Cristalino founded to run reserve research and education. Fundação Ecológica Cristalino, 1999.
What was lost at Cristalino Reserve?
Alta Floresta sits on the "arc of deforestation" — the advancing southern cut-line of the Amazon. The town was founded to clear forest; the region became one of Brazil's most deforested. The Cristalino River's forests were next in line.
What brought it back?
Vitória da Riva Carvalho — daughter of the man who founded the colonisation town — bought roughly 12,000 hectares of standing forest in the early 1990s and turned it the other way. In 1997 she created the first Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) in northern Mato Grosso, and in 1999 the Fundação Ecológica Cristalino to run research and education on it. The lodge on the riverbank exists to pay for the reserve.
What is it like now?
The reserve now protects 11,399 hectares across eight classified forest types, with over 1,200 plant species recorded — three of them new to science (Cristalino / IUCN, 2025). Ecotourism revenue funds the reserve's maintenance, research and education programs.
Who does the work?
Vitória da Riva Carvalho still leads the project; the Fundação Ecológica Cristalino runs the science and the schools programs. The guides are largely local — people whose alternative employer is the frontier the reserve holds back.
How do you visit Cristalino Reserve?
Cristalino Lodge is the reserve's funding engine — canopy towers at dawn, river trips at dusk. Every night here is a hectare's argument against the chainsaws to the south.
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