- The state of Pará has created two new protected areas along the Amazon coastline, bringing nearly all of its mangrove forests under federal protection.
- These two reserves mean an additional 74,700 hectares (184,600 acres) of the largest and most protected contiguous mangrove area on Earth.
- The process of creating the reserves took more than 13 years and faced several setbacks. The final result has been hailed by environmentalists as a victory for local communities and biodiversity.
- New mining reserves will allow residents to engage in traditional, sustainable mining practices such as fishing and hunting, while keeping out large enterprises such as commercial aquaculture and logging.
Brazil’s Pará state has established two new conservation units that now constitute the world’s largest and most protected mangrove forest, protecting nearly all of the Amazon’s coastline. In an environmental victory, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a decree on two protected areas on March 21, creating an additional 74,700 hectares (184,600 acres) of mangrove ecosystems. This was achieved by placing it under federal protection.
“Being able to protect the mangroves here in the Amazon is another victory for us,” said National Director and Regional Director of the National Commission for the Strengthening of Mining Reserves and Traditional Coastal and Marine Mining Peoples (Confrem). Coordinator Sandra Regina Pereira Gonçalves, a female fisherman, told Mongabay. Confrem was involved in a campaign to have mangrove areas recognized as federally protected areas.
The creation of a protected area is an important milestone in not only ensuring food security for local populations, but also conserving the region’s rich biodiversity and aiding in carbon sequestration. Gonçalves said it took 16 years to recognize the reserve as a federally protected area and faced several setbacks, including former President Jair Bolsonaro’s freeze on environmental protection efforts from 2019 until 2022. Stated.
The two new reserves are the Filhos de Mangue Reserve and the Villiandeua Extracted Reserve. Extractive reserves, known in Brazil as resexes, are protected areas where local populations maintain the right to engage in traditional extractive practices such as hunting, fishing, and harvesting wild plants. These are designed to protect traditional people’s lives and culture and ensure sustainable use of the region’s natural resources.
“Only members of the community can survive on the local biodiversity,” Monique Galván, deputy director of the Rea Brasil Institute, a non-profit organization involved in the process leading to the creation of the protected area, told Mongabay. “That means, for example, large companies in the private sector cannot participate.”
Filhos de Mange Lissex covers an area of 40,537 hectares (100,169 acres) and is home to 4,000 families. Villiandeure Resex is spread over 34,191 hectares (84,488 acres) and is home to approximately 3,100 families. The two protected areas are located in the Salgado Paraense region, which supports one of the largest and most ecologically important mangrove forests in the country.
“With the creation of Filhos de Mangue and Villiandeua, we have here formed a great shield, a vast area that protects the Amazonian mangroves,” said the Federal Government’s Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). said Director Mauro Pires. The agency that oversees the protected area said in a video statement. “[These mangroves] It is rich in biodiversity and provides a way of life for the many families who benefit from these resources. ”
Protecting Brazil’s mangroves
The mangrove forests of the Amazon River estuary are home to hundreds of species of wildlife and support thousands of people, as well as contributing to the fight against climate change. Mangroves are one of the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, storing around 1,000 tonnes of carbon per hectare in their roots and surrounding soil.
Brazil’s coastal mangrove forests cover an area of approximately 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) and account for approximately 10% of the world’s remaining mangrove forests. Most of these mangroves are concentrated on the Amazon coastline, and 80% of all mangroves in Brazil are found in three Amazonian states. 505,490 hectares (1.25 million acres) in Maranhão state, 390,589 hectares (965,166 acres) in Pará state, and 226,895 hectares (560,670 acres) in Amapá. Almost all of the mangroves in Pará are currently protected within 14 federal reserves.
ICMBio estimates that 25% of Brazil’s mangrove forests have been lost since the beginning of 1900, especially in the country’s southeast and northeast. In the Northeast, seawater aquaculture, especially shrimp farming, is an important source of income and employment for rural residents, but can have negative impacts on mangroves. Although the area has not been directly affected by the conversion of mangrove forests to shrimp ponds, shrimp farming still impacts the ecosystem indirectly through pollution and degradation.
“We want to avoid something like that happening up north,” Galvan said. “With this protection [in the two new reserves]This prevents large corporations from setting up operations in those areas to extract nature, and also prevents the threat of oil, gas and shrimp production. ”
In the Brazilian Amazon, traditional coastal communities’ livelihoods are based on artisanal fishing, crabbing, and the harvesting of other natural resources to gather what they need to feed their families. According to a 2014 study, this traditional lifestyle “helps maintain mangrove forests in a near-primitive state and prevents forest conversion to establish shrimp farming operations.”
Approximately 90% of Brazil’s fishermen are small-scale. Most live in the northern part of the country and fish in and along the Amazon mangroves. Reserves in the region, including two new reserves, ensure that these traditional methods are maintained and help protect mangroves.
“In addition to the natural resilience of vast Amazonian mangrove forests, conservation organizations, especially Resex, provide an additional layer of legal protection, as they are managed in a participatory manner by traditional fishing communities. ” Pedro Warfir Souza Filho, a geologist and associate researcher at the Vail Institute of Technology, told Mongabay.
The creation of reserves will also provide additional insurance to local communities in case of future oil activity in northern Brazil. The equatorial margin of the Amazon estuary holds an estimated 30 billion barrels of reserves, and state oil giant Petrobras plans to explore offshore here, off the coast of Amapá state, a plan that environmentalists say will cause widespread and far-reaching damage. He warns. An oil spill occurs.
Although oil exploration plans are being discussed at the federal level and supported by President Lula, Petrobras has not yet been granted the necessary permits to carry out research in the area. While the creation of new reserves does not preclude oil exploration potential, having a beneficiary management plan and record will make it much easier to provide assistance and protection to those affected by future oil spills. This means that it becomes easier. Environmentalists say they hope the Amapá state government will follow Pará’s example and protect mangroves along the coast.
“The Amapá government is also working with the Pará state government,” Galván said. “We are very positive that Amapá could become another high priority site for us from a conservation perspective.”
Managing reserves
Managing mined reserves requires a participatory approach that incorporates input from multiple stakeholders. A deliberative council will be established, comprising representatives of government agencies, civil society organizations, and traditional people living in the area. This council approves Ressex’s management plan.
The next step for the Filhos de Mangue and Villiandeua reserves is to define a management plan that will ensure that the reserves are only intended for sustainable use. This means that there is no large-scale economic activity in Resex. Sustainable production takes place solely for the benefit of the traditional people living there.
“This process involves many stakeholders and different expectations, so it is very time-consuming,” Galvan said. This is a rigorous procedure that involves planning who can benefit from resex’s natural resources. Beneficiaries will have to register and, if they meet a profile set by the council, will be “permitted to acquire wealth from nature in a sustainable way,” Mr Galvan said.
With a victory to strengthen protection of the Amazon coastline in Pará state, local residents say they want to secure more protected areas along Brazil’s mangrove forests. “We are protectors of the mangroves and we call ourselves protectors of the ocean,” Gonsalves said. “We want to go to other states so we can do what Pará is doing and protect mangroves and communities.”
Banner image: Almost all of Brazil’s mangrove forests (80%) are located in three Amazon states: Maranhão, Pará, and Amapá. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace.
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