Banhados do Delta do Jacuí Biological Reserve ( pt, Reserva Biológica dos Banhados do Delta do Jacuí) is a biological reserve in the

Jacuí River The Jacuí River () is a river in Rio Grande do Sul state of southern Brazil. The Jacuí empties into the Guaíba River, an estuarine arm of the Lagoa dos Patos, a large coastal lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Sources The Jacuí River, ...

delta in

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

History

The Jacuí Delta State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual do Delta do Jacuí) was established on 14 January 1976. The islands of Pólvora and Pombas were designated as a Biological Reserve, and other areas could be expropriated. The park covered . It is located in the

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

metropolitan region in the municipalities of Eldorado do Sul,

Nova Santa Rita Nova Santa Rita is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), located in the South Region of Brazi ...

Canoas Canoas (), which earned city status in 1939, is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. With more than 340,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Porto Alegre conurbation and has the second highest GDP in the state. It is also th ...

, Triunfo, Charqueadas and Porto Alegre. In February 2004 the state's Department of the Environment presented a proposal to create the Jacuí Delta Environmental Protection Area (APA), which would include the state park with the addition of to give a total area of . The proposal would include creating the Banhados do Delta Biological Reserve, with an area of , to be used only for scientific studies, with full protection of species. The state park's limits were redefined on 11 November 2005. The outcome was that the APA, which covers including privately-owned land, supports the use of natural resources in a sustainable manner according to a management plan. The State Park portion, which covers all of which is publicly owned, aims to preserve the natural landscape and ecosystem for scientific, educational and recreational use.

Environment

The area containing the biological reserve is a water complex formed by the rivers Caí,

Sinos Sinus or Sinos ( grc, Σίνος) was a town of the Chalcidice in ancient Macedonia. It belonged to the Delian League since it appears in the tribute records of Athens of 434/3 and 433/2 BCE, where it paid a ''phoros'' of 1500 drachmas ...

Gravataí Gravataí ( Tupi–Guarani: ''gravatá'', a kind of flower common in the region; ''y'', river.) is a Brazilian municipality near Porto Alegre at the Rio Grande do Sul State. Its population is approximately 280,000 people, making it the sixth most ...

and Jacuí, which form Lake Guaíba. There are thirty islands and mainland areas. Where the rivers meet the Gravataí is heavily polluted by urbanization and industry, and the Caí and Sinos are heavily polluted by environmental waste. The boundaries of the islands are constantly shifting. The vegetation is typical of wetlands in the region. Despite the proximity to the city, endangered species are found in the delta including

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...

capybara The capybaraAlso called capivara (in Brazil), capiguara (in Bolivia), chigüire, chigüiro, or fercho (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru). or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydro ...

and

broad-snouted caiman The broad-snouted caiman (''Caiman latirostris'') is a crocodilian in the family Alligatoridae found in eastern and central South America, including southeastern Brazil, northern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia. It is found mostly in fr ...

Notes

Sources

* * * {{Biological reserve (Brazil) 1976 establishments in Brazil Biological reserves of Brazil Protected areas of Rio Grande do Sul Protected areas established in 1976