Altamira National Forest ( pt, Floresta Nacional Altamira) is a national forest 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 ...

Brazil.

Location

The Altamira National Forest is in the Amazon biome. It has an area of . It covers parts of the municipalities of

Altamira Altamira may refer to: People *Altamira (surname) Places * Cave of Altamira, a cave in Cantabria, Spain famous for its paintings and carving *Altamira, Pará, a city in the Brazilian state of Pará * Altamira, Huila, a town and municipality in ...

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 ...

and Trairão in the state of Pará. The forest lies in the Amazon lowlands, with altitudes from . The forest spans the watershed between 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 clearw ...

and the

Xingu River The Xingu River ( ; pt, Rio Xingu, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Byti'', ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water. ...

. It contains part of the Curuaés River in the Xingu basin. The annual plan of 2009 authorized the grant of four forest management units totalling , which were allocated to two companies with contracts expected to last 40 years and to create about 900 formal jobs, 80% of which would be local.

Environment

Average annual rainfall is . Temperatures range from with an average of . Vegetation is mostly open rainforest with lianas, but also includes dense submontane rainforest and alluvial forest. Rapid ecological assessment studies found 212 species of flora in 145 genera. Endemic fish include Aspidoras poecilus,

Microschemobrycon elongatus ''Microschemobrycon'' is a genus of characins, in the family Characidae, from South America, with seven currently described species. It is a neotropical genus of ray-finned fishes distributed in the Amazon Basin to Mato Grosso and Paraná Basin, ...

, Harttia dissidens and Hopliancistrus tricornis. Endemic primates include the

white-cheeked spider monkey The white-cheeked spider monkey (''Ateles marginatus'') is a species of spider monkey, a type of New World monkey, endemic to Brazil. It moves around the forest canopy in small family groups of two to four, part of larger groups of a few dozen an ...

(Ateles marginatus) and the

white marmoset The white marmoset (''Mico leucippe''), or golden-white bare-ear marmoset, is a Vulnerable species, vulnerable species of marmoset, a small monkey endemic to the Amazon rainforest in Pará, Brazil. References

Mico (genus), white marmos ...

(Mico leucippe).

Conservation

The Altamira National Forest was created by decree nº 2.483 of 2 February 1998, and 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 Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...

(ICMBio). It is classed as

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 par ...

VI (protected area with sustainable use of natural resources) with the objective of sustainable multiple use of forest resources and scientific research, with emphasis on methods for sustainable exploitation of native forests. Protected species include the jaguar (Panthera onca),

giant otter The giant otter or giant river otter (''Pteronura brasiliensis'') is a South American carnivorous mammal. It is the longest member of the weasel family, Mustelidae, a globally successful group of predators, reaching up to . Atypical of muste ...

(Pteronura brasiliensis) and Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis). The ecological station is in a region that contains 12 sustainable use conservation areas and 6 fully protected areas. The fully protected areas, which cover , are the

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. ...

, Jamanxim, Rio Novo and Serra do Pardo national parks, the

Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve The Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve ( pt, Reserva Biológica Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo) is a biological reserve in the state of Pará, Brazil. The reserve protects an area in the transition between the Cerrado and Amazon bi ...

and the

Terra do Meio Ecological Station Terra do Meio Ecological Station ( pt, Estação Ecológica da Terra do Meio) is an ecological station (ESEC) in the state of Pará, Brazil. Location The Terra do Meio Ecological Station has an area of . It covers parts of the municipalities of ...

. The sustainable use areas include the Tapajós environmental protection area and the Altamira,

Amaná Amaná is a municipality and village in La Rioja Province in northwestern Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina cover ...

, Jamanxim, Trairão, Itaituba I, Itaituba II and

national forests, covering a total of .

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Protected areas of Pará National forests of Brazil