Instituto Terra is a civil non-profit organization founded in 1999 by Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Junior. It is located at the Bulcão Farm, Aimorés – MG and it covers and area of 676 hectares. It is recognized as a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) by a decree issued by the State Forestry Instituto (IEF) of the state of Minas Gerais on October 7th, 1998. It is the first RPPN to be created in a degraded area of the Atlantic Forest. The Rio Doce Valley area, where the Instituto is located, was originally covered by exuberant forests of the biome of the Atlantic Forest, but now it is in a state of rapid degradation. Some of the causes are:: *