The Amapá National Forest () is a national forest in the state of

Amapá Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area ...

, Brazil. It supports sustainable exploitation of the natural resources in an area of

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

in the

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (; ; ; ) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a 1.7 billion-year-old Precambrian geological formation in northeast South America that forms a portion of the northern coast. The higher elevations on ...

Location

The Amapá National Forest is divided between the municipalities of

Pracuúba Pracuúba () is a municipality located in the mideast of the state of Amapá in Brazil. It became an independent municipality in 1992. The town can be accessed from the BR-156 highway. Geography The population of Pracuúba is 5,246 and its area i ...

(52.85%), Ferreira Gomes (44.07%) and

(3.08%) in the state of Amapá. It has an area of . The forest is bounded to the north by the small Mutum River, to the east by the Falsino River, to the west by the Araguari River, and to the south by the confluence of the Falsino and Araguari. In the extreme north there are chains of mountains of significant height, thought to belong to the Tumucumaque complex. To the east it adjoins the Amapá State Forest, a sustainable use environmental unit created in 2006. To the northwest it adjoins the Montanhas do Tumucumaque National Park.

Environment

The Amapá National Forest is in the Amazon biome. It contains a large area of humid tropical forest, mostly terra firma. It is accessible only by one viable waterway, the Araguari, from the municipality of Porto Grande. Vegetation includes imposing Amazon species such as

Dinizia excelsa ''Dinizia excelsa'' is a South American Canopy (biology), canopy-Rainforest#Emergent layer, emergent tropical rainforest tree species in the family Fabaceae, native to primarily Brazil and Guyana. In Portuguese it is known as Angelim Vermelho, An ...

, Manilkara huberi, Vouacapoua americana and Caryocar villosum. Common palms are

Euterpe oleracea Euterpe (; , from + ) was one of the Muses in Greek mythology, presiding over music. In late Classical times, she was named muse of lyric poetry. She has been called "Giver of delight" by ancient poets. Mythology Euterpe was born as one of t ...

(açaí) and Iriartea exorrhiza.

History

The Amapá National Forest was created by presidential decree 97.630 of 10 April 1989. It is administered by

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation ( Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is a government agency under the administration of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. It is nam ...

. 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 part ...

VI (protected area with sustainable use of natural resources). The objective is to support sustainable multiple use of forest resources and scientific research, with emphasis on methods for sustainable exploitation of native forests. It is part of the Amapá Biodiversity Corridor, created in 2003. The advisory council was established by ordnance 100 on 12 December 2008. The management plan was approved on 9 January 2014.

Tourism

It is possible to visit Amapá National Florest mainly by the Araguari river, in cite of Porto Grande. The main attractions are its rivers, rapids and forests, in addition to the population living in this region and its culture. The local riverine population receive tourists, to know the rivers, the trails, their houses and their traditional activities. Every visit is necessarily by boat, as this Protected Area is surrounded by rivers. In addition, as it is on the other side of the river, the Amapá State Forest is also visited. Amapá National Forest is one of the few Federal Conservation Units that allows sport fishing, but only on the Araguari River.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amapa National Forest National forests of Brazil Protected areas of Amapá