The Furna Feia National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Furna Feia) 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

Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", ref ...

, Brazil that contains a large cave system.

History

Furna Feia park is the first national park in Rio Grande do Norte. Creation of the park was stalled by resistance from mining operations in the area, mainly limestone for use in making cement. As a compromise of the planned park where mining applications had been filed were given up, removing the main obstacle. The park was created on 5 June 2012, 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). President

Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first w ...

announced creation of the park on

World Environment Day World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated annually on 5 June and encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment. It is supported by many non-governmental organizations, businesses, government entities, and represents the ...

Location

The park is in the

Caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

biome and has an area of . The park lies in the municipalities of Baraúna and

Mossoró Mossoró () is the second most populous city in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, and also the largest municipality of that state. It is equidistant (four hours' drive) from Natal (approximately 277 km or 172 miles), the state capit ...

in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. Furna Feia (Ugly Cavern) is the largest cave complex in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. So far more than 200 caves have been found. The main cave is long, and is the most important attraction in the park. The park holds about 105 species of plants and 135 species of animals, some of which are endangered. Eleven species of

troglobite A troglobite (or, formally, troglobiont) is an animal species, or population of a species, strictly bound to underground habitats, such as caves. These are separate from species that mainly live in above-ground habitats but are also able to live u ...

invertebrates have been found, all new to science.

Conservation

The parks 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 part ...

II (national park). Its goals are to preserve the speleological complex of Furna Feia and the biodiversity associated with the Caatinga biome, to carry out scientific research and to develop educational activities, environmental interpretation, outdoors recreation and eco-tourism. ICMBio works with the local people to try to prevent actions that degrade the natural resources of the park, which include hunting, illegal removal of timber and destructive visits to the caves, particularly the main cave. The agency has established a fire brigade to help prevent forest fires in the conservation unit.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control National parks of Brazil Protected areas of Rio Grande do Norte 2012 establishments in Brazil Protected areas established in 2012 Caatinga