The Tapajós Environmental Protection Area ( pt, Área de Proteção Ambiental do Tapajós) is an environmental protection area in the state of

Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana a ...

, Brazil.

Location

The Tapajós Environmental Protection Area (APA) is divided between the municipalities of

Trairão Trairão is a municipality in the state of Pará in the Northern region of Brazil. Conservation The municipality contains part of the Trairão National Forest, in which logging is permitted subject to a management plan. It contains part of the ...

(0.27%),

Jacareacanga Jacareacanga is a municipality in the state of Pará in the Northern region of Brazil. It is at the very centre of South America. Conservation The municipality contains the Crepori National Forest, created in 2006. It contains 14% of the Tapa ...

(14.12%) and

Itaituba Itaituba is a city and municipality located in the state of Pará, Brazil, and one of the most important socioeconomic centers in the western region of the State. Location Itaituba is the fifteenth largest city (by population) in the State of ...

(85.61%) in the state of Pará. It has an area of . The Tapajós APA is in the western portion of the BR-163 Sustainable Forest District. The Transgarimpeira Road runs through the APA from east to west, and provides the easiest access. The terrain is hilly, with deep valleys formed by erosion and

inselberg An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

s. Altitudes range from . The APA is in the Jamanxim sub-basin of the

Tapajós The Tapajós ( pt, Rio Tapajós ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. It is one of the largest cle ...

basin. The main rivers in the APA are the Tapajós, Jamanxim, Crepori and

Novo ''Novo'' is a 2002 French romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin and starring Eduardo Noriega. The film tells the story of a man who suffers from amnesia. It screened at the Locarno Film Festival. Plot Graham suffers from severe am ...

History

The Tapajós Environmental Protection Area (APA) was created by federal decree on 13 February 2006 with the basic objectives of protecting biological diversity, controlling occupation and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources. The APA was created to relieve unemployment and social tension caused by tighter controls on

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

in the municipality of

Novo Progresso Novo Progresso is a municipality in the state of Pará in the Northern region of Brazil. The city is served by Novo Progresso Airport The municipality contains part of the Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve, a strictly protect ...

and the district of Moraes de Almeida. This could be partly solved by opening timber concessions in the APA. Ordinance 108 of 23 December 2011 created the consultative council to help create and implement the management plan. The APA is administered by the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation ( Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), ...

(ICMBio). It is classed

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 ...

V (protected landscape/seascape). Provisional measure 558 of 5 January 2012 changed the boundaries of the

Mapinguari Mpinguari or Mpinguary, (also called the ''Juma'') are monsterous jungle-dwelling spirits from Brazilian folklore. Description There are two major depictions of it. Some described them as a hairy humanoid cyclops. This version is often said to ...

Amazônia The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

and Campos Amazônicos national parks, Itaituba I, Itaituba II and Crepori national forests and the Tapajós APA. All were reduced in size apart from the Campos Amazônicos park. An area of about was removed from the Tapajós APA due to the planned

Jatobá Hydroelectric Power Plant The Jatobá Hydroelectric Power Plant ( pt, Usina Hidrelétrica Jatobá) is a planned hydroelectric power plant and dam on the Tapajós river in the state of Pará, Brazil. As of 2017 the project was suspended. Location The Jatobá Hydroelectric ...

on the

river. The measure affected about 0.96% of the APA, which was reduced from . Law 12678 of 25 June 2012 confirmed provisional measure 558. Provisional measure 758 of 19 December 2016 altered the limits of the Tapajós APA and the

Jamanxim National Park The Jamanxim National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional do Jamanxim) is a national park in the state of Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, M ...

. It remove two polygons of and , and elsewhere expanded the park by . The areas removed were to be used for the beds and verges of the EF-170 railway and BR-163 highway. Land that was not actually used would be reintegrated into the national park. The area of the APA dropped from , while the area of the national park grew from .

Environment

Average annual rainfall is . Temperatures range from with an average of . Soils are mainly red yellow acrisols. Vegetation includes dense rainforest (74%), open rainforest (24%) and

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are ...

-forest contact (2%). Almost 93% of the area is covered by rainforest, with 213 species of trees, 2 of lianas and 8 of palm trees. Andiroba (

Carapa guianensis ''Carapa guianensis'' is a species of tree in the family Meliaceae, also known by the common names andiroba or crabwood. Description Andiroba is native to the Amazon and is widely used by the indigenous populations of the northern region o ...

) and

Brazil nut The Brazil nut (''Bertholletia excelsa'') is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest ...

(Bertholletia excelsa) are the most common. A number of common species have economic value including Muiratinga, Breu-manga, Breu-vermelho, Louro-jandauba and Abiurana-vermelha in the dense rainforest and Breu manga, Muiratinga, Abiurana vermelha, Macucu and Embauba in the open rainforest. In the open rainforest with creepers valuable trees include Louro-jandauba, Caripe-banco, Breu-vermelho, Acariquara and Muiratinga.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tapajos Environmental Protection Area Environmental protection areas of Brazil Protected areas established in 2006 2006 establishments in Brazil Protected areas of Pará