Andre Albuquerque
Founder

About Andre Albuquerque

Country:  Brazil
Region:  South America

Mission:  

Terra Nova is a social enterprise committed to the sustainable regularization of illegally occupied properties in Brazil’s urban areas.

Sector:  Housing: Focus: Land Ownership, Urban Planning, Civic Participation
Year Founded:  2001
Website:  Terra Nova Regularizações Fundiárias

Description:  

Terra Nova, a for-profit social enterprise, helps urban slum dwellers obtain legal title to the land they occupy. By managing all aspects of the land regularization process, Terra Nova helps community residents purchase the land they live on, formalizing an important asset and catalyzing economic growth. This enables the government to implement much needed infrastructure such as running water, sewer systems, electricity and paved roads. The process offers triple bottom line results (i.e., social, environmental and economic benefits) to these urban slums. It transforms dormant assets into capital benefitting all stakeholders: 1) community residents purchase important assets, gain access to credit and are transitioned into the formal economy, 2) governments resolve complex, costly problems associated with urban slums and collect taxes and, 3) land owners are compensated for their occupied property. Terra Nova's methodology for sustainable land regularization provides a dignified and empowering solution to formalizing property rights.

Social Impact:  

Eight years after its inception, Terra Nova now operates in five states in Brazil, as well as in the Federal District, and reaches 28 communities and some 30,000 families. Terra Nova is working to expand its operations to include cases involving families forcibly displaced due to infrastructural construction projects. With support from the World Bank, André plans to spread his operations to every state in Brazil. Within ten years, he hopes to have replicated Terra Nova’s methodology in several other developing countries.