The Programa Nacional de Patrimônio Immaterial (PNPI) is a support and promotion program that seeks partnerships in the public and private sectors to contribute to the sustainability and viability of projects pertaining to the identification, recognition, preservation and dissemination of the intangible heritage of Brazil. The law was enacted by Decree no. 3,551 of August 4, 2000 establishing the law.
Projects which are included in the following activities are first and foremost funded, supported and stimulated by the program:
1) Documentation, research, and dissemination of information. 2) Providing assistance with the production and conservation of cultural collections. 3) Maintaining a system of records and information.
The core values of the national program are sustainability, promotion and capacity building.
Several national calls for projects from the Programa Nacional de Patrimônio Intangible are made every year to encourage and support safeguarding initiatives and practices proposed by the Brazilian society with regard to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. A community and group involved in the project need to be included as part of the process. As part of the project, the social inclusion and improvement of the living conditions of the creators and holders of the heritage, as well as the protection of individual and collective rights, are necessary. In most cases, the project involves a variety of activities, such as mapping, inventories, and ethnographic research; information systematization and database creation and implementation; documentation and ethnographic archives creation or preservation, promotion and transmission of traditional knowledge to new generations, and strengthening community capacities for research, safeguarding, and education. In order for a project to be successful, it should be proposed and developed by either a local government establishment or a non-profit organization, but the projects must garner the consent of the communities involved. It is organized by the department of cultural heritage, which is part of IPHAN (National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute), located in Brasilia, and the projects are judged by a national committee of experts who gather together to evaluate them. Considering the number of selected projects, it could be expected that the average award for a project is somewhere in the vicinity of R$100,000 (US$50,000) and that the project can typically be completed within one year.
In this call for projects, priority is given to strengthening safeguarding processes and institutions in the community, as well as to creating networks between different institutions and social actors. Consequently, the process is a model of fostering initiatives of the civil society with the intention of preserving intangible cultural heritage, and constitutes a model of financing and facilitating such initiatives.
References: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programa_Nacional_do_Patrim%C3%B4nio_Imaterial