The Rio Cautário State Resex Forest Conservation Project covers 146,400 ha in Rondonia state. It aims to protect native ecosystems and safeguard traditional communities’ rights to an area under constant threat from illegal activities that have reduced or degazetted many protected areas in Rondonia over the last decades. In 2020, Permian Brasil, a nature conservation private company, in association with 92 local families, started a 30-year forest carbon project. Since then, the company has directed upfront investments of R$ 5.5 million/year to the reserve, benefiting families through Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and community development programs. As a result, and compared to the situation prior to the project, the project has created job opportunities for local people, empowered women and the youth, increased local income and improved family life quality with infrastructure such as internet access, solar energy, wells, etc. The project employs local staff dedicated to protection, community engagement, biodiversity monitoring and restoration, investing in building local capacity. The project at Rio Cautário, although in an initial stage, shows carbon finance can be a viable model of sustainable development for the region, benefiting communities and protecting the Amazon rainforest and its biodiversity. It is expected to generate carbon credits in a large scale from 2024 on, and its model can be replicated and customized for other protected areas under pressure in the Amazon to use carbon markets to improve local livelihoods and help local communities to conserve native ecosystems with the needed resources, means and safety.