New 416 Atlantic Forest Conservation Units are now monitored in Brazil. The 43% growth since 2017 was reported by the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica. Despite the significant growth, the survey reported that of this total, only 159 were created in the last five years – the rest already existed, but were not mapped in the country’s Conservation Units System.
Among the 17 states covered by the biome, covering 3,429 municipalities, Paraná (127), Rio de Janeiro (114) and São Paulo (61) recorded the most significant increases in the recognition of new inspected units.
Despite this, the largest area of Atlantic Forest is outside these territories – Mato Grosso do Sul accumulates more than 342,000 hectares of the biome, but loses out when it comes to conservation: only 9 protected areas are registered in the Midwest state.
According to the organization that manages the survey, these units are important for the preservation of the forest. Among the 1388 that are monitored, only 329 make up the National Registry of Conservation Units (CNUC) – a control and inspection platform of the Ministry of the Environment. This 75% gap in registered units still raises a warning: other biomes in the country may also be suffering from neglect of monitoring.
To the CNN Brazil, Diegmeio ao Igawa Martinez, coordinator of protected areas at Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica, evaluated the scenario of access to information in these areas.
“There are several difficulties in making information about areas protected by municipalities available to society, but this is fundamental not only for conservation planning, but also for guiding the planning of cities, for the licensing of projects and to stimulate the contact of the population with its environmental heritage”, he commented.
Of the 157 cities surveyed, 80% said they had some interest in developing new conservation units. The organization also tried to contact another 1342 municipalities that are covered by the biome, but had no response.
Regarding the preservation potential, the state of Rio Grande do Sul was the one that showed the greatest interest in transforming areas of Atlantic Forest into conservation units, São Paulo, Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte appear in the sequence, respectively. Today, only 12.4% of the forest is original.
“In addition to protecting ecosystems, species and landscapes, these areas can also be used as broader planning strategies, since they bring instruments for water protection, for the planning of urban expansion, for the prevention of accidents in areas of risk and give municipalities more resilience to face climate change”, concluded the coordinator.
*under supervision of Helena Vieira
Reference: CNN Brasil
