Jaíba Biological Reserve () is a biological reserve in

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

, Brazil.

Location

The reserve of of deciduous forest was created in the municipality of Matias Cardoso on 4 July 1973 as Jaiba Forest Park, then became Jaíba Biological Reserve on 30 December 1994. The reserve is in the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large Rivers of Brazil, river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon R ...

Basin. It is part of the Jaiba Sistema de Áreas Protegidas (SAP), which was created as a condition of approval of the Jaiba Irrigation Project. The other fully protected units in the Jaiba SAP are the Serra Azul Biological Reserve, Verde Grande State Park and Lagoa do Cajueiro State Park, giving a fully protected area of . The SAP also includes two Environment Protection Areas totalling . In 2010 a single advisory board was established to oversee all the conservation units of the Jaiba SAP.

Environment

The climate is tropical, with temperatures ranging from and average temperature of . Annual rainfall averages , mostly falling in the summer. The reserve contains deciduous forest (Dry Forest) that is home to

agouti The agouti (, ) or common agouti is any of several rodent species of the genus ''Dasyprocta''. They are native to Central America, northern and central South America, and the southern Lesser Antilles. Some species have also been introduced else ...

s, lizards, monkeys and various species of birds. It belongs to the

Caatinga Caatinga () is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" comes from the Tupi word '' ka'atinga'', meaning "white forest" or "white vegetat ...

domain. A 2007 study of the vegetation found 27 families with 55 species. 15 species were from the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

and 4 species from the family

Nyctaginaceae Nyctaginaceae, the four o'clock family, is a family of around 33 genera and 290 species of flowering plants, widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, with a few representatives in temperate regions. The family has a distinctive fr ...

. The largest number of individuals was from the

Tabebuia ochracea ''Tabebuia ochracea'', known as in Spanish, is a timber tree native to South America, Cerrado and Pantanal vegetation in Brazil. It is also known as ''Handroanthus ochraceus'' or ''Tecoma ochracea''. It is often confused with the Golden Trumpet ...

species, followed by Combretum leprosum and Terminalia fagifolia.

Conservation

As of 2009 the State Biological Reserve was a "strict nature reserve" under

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is part ...

Ia. There are trails in the reserve that are often used by students at technical schools in the region, and it is also an important research area.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaiba Biological Reserve 1973 establishments in Brazil Biological reserves of Brazil Protected areas of Minas Gerais Protected areas established in 1973