The largest reserve of rainforests in the world in Brazil

2002/08/23 Orobengoa, Olatz - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Ingurumena

The new park is located in the Brazilian state of Amapá, north of the Amazon rainforest. It has an approximate area of 3,870,000 hectares, the size of Switzerland. The park constitutes 1% of the entire Amazon rainforest and protects an area of very special ecological character: It is the type of rainforest known as ‘The Guyanese Rainforest’.

The region that has become a park is very little known, since most of it consists of granite mountains and impenetrable rivers. For this reason, scientists do not have much information about this forest at the moment, and it is possible that they keep unknown species inside them.

The rugged orography means that there are no human groups throughout the park. In addition, the only known human activity is a mineral cassiterite mine. Now, with the declaration of a national park, mining work is suspended. However, they have not denied that there may be illegal mining or hunting.

This is the main responsibility of many conservationist associations. Despite having received with satisfaction the declaration of the new park, they are concerned about the future of the parks. They say the new parks are very easy to create, but problems start to have to protect them and take care of them properly.

Corruption cases of officers working to protect the environment are very common in Brazil. In fact, the government's Department of Environment has very little money and the salary paid to its employees is very low. In this sense, the Brazilian government has announced that to try to solve the problems, the Department of Environment will begin to reorganize. The

president of Brazil, Fernando Enrique Cardoso, has stated on several occasions that his goal is to protect 10% of the Amazon rainforest, but only 3% is protected. Now, with the new park Tumucumaque, they have reached 4.5%.