The Algodoal-Maiandeua Environmental Protection Area () is an

environmental protection area Environmental protection, or environment protection, refers to the taking of measures to protecting the natural environment, prevent pollution and maintain ecological balance. Action may be taken by individuals, advocacy groups and governments. ...

in the state of

Pará Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It protects two coastal islands with beaches, dunes, mangroves and wetlands that are home to fishing people and are popular with tourists.

Location

The Algodoal-Maiandeua Environmental Protection Area is in the municipality of

Maracanã, Pará Maracanã, Pará is a municipality in the state of Pará in the Northern region of Brazil. The municipality contains the lower reaches of the Maracanã River, which is joined by the Caripi River before widening into Maracanã Bay and emptying i ...

. It is on the northeast coast of Pará in the Salgado microregion. The Atlantic Ocean is to the north and the Mocooca channel to the south. The Maracanã River estuary is to the east and the Marapanim River estuary to the west. The APA is bounded to the south by the

Maracanã Marine Extractive Reserve The Maracanã Marine Extractive Reserve () is a coastal marine extractive reserve in the state of Pará, Brazil. It protects an area of mangroves, and allows the local population to make sustainable use of the natural resources. Location The Mara ...

. The

Mestre Lucindo Marine Extractive Reserve The Mestre Lucindo Marine Extractive Reserve () is a coastal marine extractive reserve in the state of Pará, Brazil. Location The Mestre Lucindo Marine Extractive Reserve is located in the municipality of Marapanim, Pará. It has an area of . ...

is opposite the APA to the west. The APA has an area of about and consists of two islands separated by an intermittent tidal channel called the ''Furo Velho''. Algodoal Island has and contains Algodoal village, Princesa Beach, Farol Beach and areas of mangroves, restingas and dunes. The island and the largest village are named "Algodoal" after a native plant, the ''algodão de seda''. Maiandeua island has and holds the villages of Fortalezinha, Mocooca and Camboinha, the localities of Camaleão, Passagem and Pedra Chorona, and beaches, mangroves and terra firme areas with vegetation. The villages are separated by areas of mangroves and tidal channels. The village of Algodoal can be reached by boat from the port of Marudá, a journey of about 40 minutes depending on the tide. A boat from the municipality of Maracanã can cross the Mocooca channel to the village of Mocooca in 5 minutes.

History

Fishermen from whom the present inhabitants are descended seem to have first moved to the island of Algodoal in the 1920s. The Algodoal-Maiandeua Environmental Protection Area was created by law 5.621 of 27 November 1990, covering the islands of Algodoal with and Maiandeua with , making a total of . The management council was created by decree 291 of 6 June 2006. On 1 June 2007 regulations were passed that prohibited use of motor vehicles in the APA. Preparation of a management plan was approved on 21 September 2011. The management plan was published on 31 December 2012, although it was not made official through an ordinance.

Environment

The APA is in the

Amazon biome The Amazon biome () contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater river, blackwater and whitewa ...

. The climate is hot and humid, with average annual temperature of , and average monthly temperatures ranging from . There is most rain from January to March, and a dry season from September to December. The island has beaches, mangroves, freshwater lakes, dunes and streams. Vegetation is typical of

restinga Restingas () are a distinct type of coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in eastern Brazil. They form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium-sized trees and shrubs adapted to the drier and n ...

, with great variety of species. The mangroves act as nurseries for fish, mussels, shrimps, oysters, turtles, crabs and other marine species. In the dunes and surroundings there are typical fruits such as ajuru, cashew, coconut, murucí, carambola and mango. Common bird species include the

scarlet ibis The scarlet ibis, sometimes called red ibis (''Eudocimus ruber''), is a species of ibis in the bird family Threskiornithidae. It inhabits tropical South America and part of the Caribbean. In form, it resembles most of the other twenty-seven ex ...

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

s (such as the

black-crowned night heron The black-crowned night heron (''Nycticorax nycticorax'') r black-capped night heron commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and Nort ...

and

yellow-crowned night heron The yellow-crowned night heron (''Nyctanassa violacea''), is one of two species of night heron in genus ''Nyctanassa''. Unlike the black-crowned night heron, which has a worldwide distribution, the yellow-crowned is restricted to the Americas. I ...

), pavão, rufous crab hawk,

yellow-headed caracara The yellow-headed caracara (''Milvago chimachima'') is new-world bird of prey in the family (biology), family Falconidae, of the Falconiformes Order (biology), order (true falcons, caracaras and their kin). It is found as far north as Nicaragua, ...

, cebinho do mangue,

roseate spoonbill The roseate spoonbill (''Platalea ajaja'') is a social wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America. The roseate spoonbill's pink color is diet-derived, consisting of ...

garganey The garganey (''Spatula querquedula'') is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and across the Palearctic, but is strictly bird migration, migratory, with the entire population moving to Africa, India (in particular Santragachi), Ban ...

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

collared plover The collared plover (''Anarhynchus collaris'') is a small shorebird in the plover family, Charadriidae. It lives along coasts and riverbanks of the tropical to temperate Americas, from central Mexico south to Chile and Argentina. This small plov ...

sanderling The sanderling (''Calidris alba'') is a small wading bird. The name derives from Old English ''sand-yrðling'', "sand-ploughman". The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-colour ...

Hudsonian whimbrel The Hudsonian whimbrel (''Numenius hudsonicus'') is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic North America. This species and the Eurasian whimbrel have recently b ...

and

ruddy turnstone The ruddy turnstone (''Arenaria interpres'') is a small Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan wader, wading bird, one of two species of turnstone in the genus ''Arenaria''. It is now classified in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae but was form ...

. Common fish include pescada amarela, xaréu, mullets,

anchovies An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

, corvina, gó (''Cynoscion microlepidotus''),

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

Atlantic goliath grouper The Atlantic goliath grouper or itajara (''Epinephelus itajara''), also known as the jewfish, is a saltwater fish of the grouper family and one of the largest species of bony fish. The species can be found in the West Atlantic ranging from nort ...

, '' Aspistor luniscutis'', dourada,

white mullet The white mullet or silver mullet (''Mugil curema'') is a tropical and subtropical marine fish of the family Mugilidae. It is commonly about long. Note that silver mullet is also a common name used for fantail mullet ('' Mugil trichodon''). Dis ...

, serra, and robalo. Molluscs and crustaceans include oysters, mussels, turu, sururu, shrimp, and crabs. Other fauna include

sloth Sloths are a Neotropical realm, Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant Arboreal locomotion, arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of move ...

coati Coatis (from Tupí), also known as coatimundis (), are members of the family Procyonidae in the genera '' Nasua'' and '' Nasuella'' (comprising the subtribe Nasuina). They are diurnal mammals native to South America, Central America, Mexico, ...

anteater Anteaters are the four extant mammal species in the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue"), commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with sloths, they ar ...

fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

es,

margay The margay (''Leopardus wiedii'') is a small wild cat native to Mexico, Central and South America. A solitary and nocturnal felid, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted for the wildl ...

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (Family (biology), family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this Family (biology), family are best known for ...

white-eared opossum The white-eared opossum (''Didelphis albiventris''), known as the timbu and cassaco in northeast Brazil, saruê and sariguê in Bahia, micurê and mucura in northern Brazil and comadreja overa in Argentina, is an opossum species found in Argentin ...

s, various species of

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

alligator An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus ''Alligator'' of the Family (biology), family Alligatoridae in the Order (biology), order Crocodilia. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the American alligator (''A. mis ...

red-footed tortoise The red-footed tortoise (''Chelonoidis carbonarius'') is a species of tortoise from northern South America. These medium-sized tortoises generally average as adults, but can reach over . They have dark-colored (nearly black), “loaf”-shaped ...

s, and other

turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...

Tourism

The island receives large numbers of tourists, including Brazilian and foreign visitors, who stay in inns and hotels. The residents organize tours and fishing trips. The APA has high tourism potential due to its scenic beauty and variety of ecosystems, beaches, dunes, cliffs, mangroves and trails linking the villages. They villagers sell local handicrafts produced from the regional flora, and practice traditional ways of making cassava flour, music, the carimbó praiano dance, local cooking and

artisanal fishing Artisanal, subsistence, or traditional fishing consists of various small-scale, low-technology, fishing practices undertaken by individual fishermen (as opposed to commercial fishing). Many of these households are of coastal or island ethnic grou ...

Notes

Sources