Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Eco-92), different regulatory mechanisms, in line with emerging territorial and environmental planning guidelines, have been developed to discipline land uses in the national countryside, with specific repercussions on each unit of the brazilian federation. In this context, the present work analyzed the territorial dynamics responsible for the expansion of Private Reserves of Natural Patrimony (RPPN) in the Rio de Janeiro state. The landscape redefinitions were derived from spatial practices indicative of new territorialities, (re) functionalisations and re-significances of the countryside. Qualitative and mixed methodological approaches were adopted for the interpretation of secondary and primary data, collected from a sample of fifty rural landowners. The results identified a network of intentions and compensations responsible for changes in the regional land use and land cover mosaic, such as: the increase of forest areas for preservation, remuneration for environmental services and tourism consumption of the rural landscape. The growth of private conservation units was favored by socio-political conjunctures from which we identified a particular institutional density of territorial processes, represented by the permeability of projects, programs - ICMS Ecológico, Produtor de Águas e Florestas, Conexão Mata Atlântica, Rio Rural, Programa de Incentivo às RPPN, among others - and agents directly or indirectly involved - APN / RJ, SERPPN, ICMBio, AMLD - in the diffusion of this category of protected area, encouraging new paths for development and sustainability in rural areas of Rio de Janeiro state.