Environmental restoration has become an increasingly important agenda in Brazil, in particular since the approval in 2012 of a new federal law for the protection of native vegetation establishing a new legal framework for restoration. Although much progress in the registration of rural properties into a Rural Environmental Registry has been made, only few farmers have started undertaking the restoration of degraded areas also part of the new law's requirements. As a result, the literature now commonly accepts that it is necessary to provide farmers with incentives to motivate their compliance. I examined the initiatives of 5 municipalities located in the Legal Amazon region (Mato Grosso state) that experimented ways to improve farmers' compliance with the law, thus getting acquainted with the daily obstacles faced by farmers. Municipalities generally provide similar benefits to producers, including technical assistance, information sharing, and seedlings for restoration. Through interviews, I asked producers what motivated them to join the initiatives and noticed that, while incentives play a role in their involvement, what really motivates them is the trust they had in the restoration project team. Restoration is indeed a long-term process and the opportunity of receiving personalized assistance greatly influenced farmers' participation. These projects have included a specific and targeted approach related to the local context and temporality, as well as institutional arrangements that give them credit. The results of this study stress both the importance of social dimensions in compliance at the local scale and the critical role played by municipalities in that process.