SINAL DO VALE

A place for regeneration

The Institute Sinal do Vale (SINAL) is a center for the regeneration of ecosystems, communities, and individuals and a steward of 400 acres of land between the urban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro and some of the last protected areas in the Atlantic Forest. SINAL is an acronym for synchronicity, innovation and joy (sincronicidade, inovação, alegria) -  the principles on which it was founded in 2012 by social entrepreneur Thais Corral. But the name SINAL (signal in English) also stands for the organization’s aspiration to be an “embodied signpost and living role model for a regenerative future.” 

SINAL inspires learning experiences and more authentic relationships between people and nature through providing educational programs, hospitality services, and incubating socio-environmental initiatives and green businesses. Since its beginning, SINAL has hosted and actively worked with several thousand local and international change-agents through its programs and projects. 

The vision of  SINAL for the next decade is to be an example of the kind of regenerative development needed to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the goal to restore 2 billion hectares of degraded land set by the 2019 UN General Assembly.  Our belief is that these very ambitious goals can only be achieved through decentralized land stewardship arrangements. Therefore, SINAL’s land stewardship strategy focuses on the regeneration of a specific, 10,000 hectare region which we call the Serra Estrela Bioregion.