Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional Marinho de Fernando de Noronha) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in the state of

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

, Brazil.

Location

The Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park covers part of the island of Fernando de Noronha, a municipality of Pernambuco. It has an area of . The

Fernando de Noronha Environmental Protection Area Fernando de Noronha Environmental Protection Area ( pt, Área de Proteção Ambiental Fernando de Noronha - Rocas - São Pedro e São Paulo) is a protected area on the island of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic ocean offshore from Pernambuco sta ...

covers the urban part of the island of Fernando de Noronha, while the Fernando de Noronha National Park covers the rest. The area includes a large marine extension to the

Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago ( pt, Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo ) is a group of 15 small islets and rocks in the central equatorial Atlantic Ocean.

, which is also in the National Park.

Administration

The Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park was created by federal decree 96.693 on September 14, 1988. It 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). The park is classified 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 part ...

II (national park). The objective is to preserve a natural ecosystem of great ecological relevance and scenic beauty, and to support scientific research, environmental education and interpretation, outdoors recreation and ecotourism. The unofficial management plan was released on 31 December 1990. The advisory council was named on 31 December 2001. A revised management plan with various studies was issued on 29 November 2010.

Environment

Much of the original vegetation of the island was cut when it was used as a prison, to make it harder for prisoners to hide. After that non-native species, particularly flaxseed, were introduced to feed livestock and have spread uncontrollably. The teju lizard was introduced in an unsuccessful attempt to control an infestation of rats, and the lizard is also a problem. Despite the stated objective of recovery of the environment, sheep continued to be farmed on the island. Protected birds in the park include

Noronha elaenia The Noronha elaenia (''Elaenia ridleyana'') is a species of bird in the tyrant-flycatcher family Tyrannidae. It is endemic to Fernando de Noronha, a small archipelago off the coast of Brazil. The species was formerly considered a subspecies of th ...

(Elaenia ridleyana), red-billed tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus),

white-tailed tropicbird The white-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon lepturus'') is a tropicbird. It is the smallest of three closely related seabirds of the tropical oceans and smallest member of the order Phaethontiformes. It is found in the tropical Atlantic, western Paci ...

(Phaethon lepturus),

Audubon's shearwater Audubon's shearwater (''Puffinus lherminieri'') is a common tropical seabird in the petrel family. Sometimes known as the dusky-backed shearwater,Carboneras (1992) the specific epithet honours the French naturalist Félix Louis L'Herminier. Cer ...

(Puffinus lherminieri),

Noronha vireo The Noronha vireo (''Vireo gracilirostris'') is a species of bird in the family Vireonidae. It is endemic to the island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. It is found in woodland, shrubland and gardens. It has been considered conspecific with the ch ...

(Vireo gracilirostris). Other protected species in the park include the crabs

Johngarthia lagostoma ''Johngarthia lagostoma'' is a species of terrestrial crab that lives on Ascension Island and three other islands in the South Atlantic. It grows to a carapace width of on Ascension Island, where it is the largest native land animal. It exis ...

and

Percnon gibbesi ''Percnon gibbesi'' is a species of crab. It is one of at least two species commonly called "Sally Lightfoot" (the other being the semi-terrestrial ''Grapsus grapsus'' from the Pacific coast of the Americas), and is also referred to as the ''nim ...

, the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta),

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

(Chelonia mydas),

hawksbill sea turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is largel ...

(Eretmochelys imbricata),

olive ridley sea turtle The olive ridley sea turtle (''Lepidochelys olivacea''), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second-smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in th ...

(Lepidochelys olivacea), the

lemon shark The lemon shark (''Negaprion brevirostris'') is a species of shark from the family Carcharhinidae and is classified as a Vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Lemon sharks can grow to in length. They are o ...

(Negaprion brevirostris), the starfish Echinaster (Othilia) guyanensis, the slate pencil urchin (

Eucidaris tribuloides ''Eucidaris tribuloides'', the slate pencil urchin, is a species of cidaroid sea urchins that inhabits littoral regions of the Atlantic Ocean. As a member of the basal clade, basal echinoid order Cidaroida, its morphological, developmental and ...

), the sea ginger coral

Millepora alcicornis ''Millepora alcicornis'', or sea ginger, is a species of colonial fire coral with a calcareous skeleton. It is found on shallow water coral reefs in the tropical west Atlantic Ocean. It shows a variety of different morphologies depending on its l ...

and the coral Phyllogorgia dilatata,

Notes

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control 1988 establishments in Brazil National parks of Brazil Protected areas of Pernambuco Ramsar sites in Brazil