PROTECTED areas are still one of the most effective tools to promote bio-diversity protection and conservation in the Amazon. The importance of protected areas of sustainable use in the present scenario is increasing. Among the proposed conservation models for protected areas of sustainable use, the Sustainable Development Reserve Model is not only viable, but extremely successful. In the present paper the main aspects of such model are presented, with some illustration from it most well known representative, the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve (MSDR), and with some discussion regarding the success and validation of the model through its replication for other sites in the Amazon.
biodiversity conservation; protected areas; participatory management
