The restoration of deforested and degraded public lands plays a fundamental role in promoting a new development model for the Amazon, based on the sustainable use of the forest’s natural resources and taking advantage of carbon market opportunities. To reap the environmental and socio-economic benefits of large-scale forest restoration in the region, partnership models between the public and private sectors are essential to offer balanced risk management and provide incentives to attract investors.

To date, forestry concessions have been the only model adopted by the government to promote the restoration of public lands with private participation. Examples include the restoration concession project for the Flona do Bom Futuro in Rondônia and the restoration concession project for the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area (Área de Proteção Ambiental – APA) in Pará, both of which are currently in the stage of public consultation.

There are two main reasons why forestry concessions have been adopted as the standard model for public land restoration projects. First, the Public Forest Management Law (Lei de Gestão de Florestas Públicas – LGFP), especially after its 2023 updates, provides specific and detailed guidelines, making it easier for the public administration to model restoration concessions. Second, the experience gained with forest management concessions has consolidated a practical framework that public agencies can apply to restoration.

However, forestry concessions have characteristics that may restrict their use for large-scale restoration of degraded public lands. In addition to being applicable only to certain land categories, forestry concessions impose strict contractual requirements and transfer most of the operational risks and burdens to the concessionaire, which can discourage the private sector from participating in this activity, especially in a complex context such as the Amazon.

In this publication, researchers from Climate Policy Initiative/Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (CPI/PUC-RIO) and Amazon 2030 analyze the different legal partnership models in Brazilian administrative law in order to identify key alternatives to forestry concessions for restoring degraded public lands.

This publication identifies ordinary tenders, common public service concessions, and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), assessing their advantages, challenges, and viability in comparison to the standard forestry concession model. The analysis considers key aspects such as regulation, administrative experience, application to different land categories, risk-sharing, and the allocation of responsibilities between the parties. This study seeks to identify a range of legal instruments available to further the restoration of public lands and align environmental recovery with sustainability and global goals for carbon emission reduction.

Before discussing the implications of applying different partnership models to forest restoration activities on public land, Box 1 presents a brief definition and examples of how these models are currently offered by the Brazilian government.