protected
Preserve the Amazon’ s Coastal Gem in Brazil
Mangroves thrive on the margins. These salt-adapted trees and shrubs form dense, semisubmerged forests along coastlines and estuaries throughout the world’ s tropics and subtropics. Their tangle of underwater roots provides essential habitat and safety from larger predators for many aquatic species, lessens the force of storm-strengthened waves, and slows the rate of coastal erosion.
Brazil is home to more mangroves than any other country after Indonesia. Of these, approximately 80 % can be found at the extreme eastern limits of the Amazon watershed, where the Amazon River Estuary sprawls along the country’ s northeastern coast. Millions of acres of mangrove forest thrive here, supporting a diversity of life that includes at least 40 threatened species, such as the Atlantic Goliath Grouper, American Manatee, and Black Rail— a small, endangered shorebird threatened by habitat loss.
Until recently, a gap in protections left a large section of this vital habitat exposed to the threats of looming oil, gas, and mining claims. Left unchecked, the development of those claims could have devastated large sections of the Amazon River Estuary. With the support of our donors, we and our partners safeguarded 188,118 acres of mangrove forest, voiding past oil, gas, and mining claims and preventing the establishment of new ones.
Mangroves in the Amazon River Estuary Manguezais da Região
This critical success was made possible through the support of BAF donors and the combined efforts of Rainforest Trust and our partner, RARE Brazil. Together, we established two new sustainable-use reserves and expanded a third. The new protected areas will be co-managed by traditional and local fishery communities, the government, and other stakeholders. The communities will also have first rights to the use of these territories, allowing them to protect the ecosystem from industrial fishing and illegal deforestation, and preserve their way of life for future generations.
in progress
Save Riverine Forest in Brazilian Amazon from Mining and Deforestation
Deep in the western Brazilian Amazon, the Putumayo – Içá River flows through the ancestral territory of the Tikuna and Kokama Peoples. Remote and unmapped, the territory is home to largely intact rainforest that is increasingly threatened by illegal gold mining and illegal, unregulated, and unsustainable logging and fishing. Despite having lived here for hundreds of years, the Tikuna and Kokama Peoples do not have any legal rights to the land, and cannot protect it from these increasing threats.
The Putumayo-Içá River in the Brazilian Amazon FUNAI
With support from BAF donors, Rainforest Trust and our partners— Amazon Conservation Team – Brazil and Wildlife Conservation Society – Brazil— will collaborate with and support four communities of the Tikuna and Kokama Peoples as they seek to obtain legal tenure of approximately 725,000 acres of their ancestral territories. This will allow the communities to manage and govern their own lands.
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