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solonavi 6 December 2006 General, Habitat, Protected Sites 263 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Conservation International

The governor of the Brazilian state of Pará today announced seven new protected areas in Amazonia covering an area roughly the size of Illinois. The announcement is an enormous step in Brazil’s world-leading efforts to protect Earth’s remaining tropical rain forests.

Stretching from the border of Guyana and Suriname in the north to areas south of the Amazon River, these new protected areas encompass an unprecedented 37 million acres.

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Two of the seven new areas are designated as strictly protected areas, one of which is the world’s largest strictly protected area ever created in a tropical forest. According to CI’s Amazonia program manager Enrico Bernard, these two areas alone could be home to as many as 54 percent of all animal and plant species found in Amazonia.

With the addition of the protected areas named today, the region now boasts a mosaic of connected protected areas, which create a biodiversity conservation corridor that allows species to roam vast landscapes. Connecting various populations of species allows these groups to intermingle, strengthen their gene pool, and thereby increase their chances for long-term survival.

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Destructive human activities, including logging, mining, and development, threaten tropical forests around the world. Brazil’s efforts to protect its forests place it at the forefront of worldwide efforts to preserve these critical landscapes.

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This year, with major support from the CI’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, CI-Brazil and its local partner IMAZON, Pará’s state government was able to achieve this conservation goal.

“This is the greatest effort in history toward the creation of protected areas in tropical forests,” says Adalberto Verissimo, senior researcher at IMAZON.

CI-Brazil will now help Pará implement these new protected areas to ensure that Jatene’s commitments are carried out far beyond his term in office. The GCF has committed US$1 million to the process.

Stretching from the border of Guyana and Suriname in the north to areas south of the Amazon River, these new protected areas encompass an unprecedented 40.5 million acres.