Caxiuanã National Forest (, also ''FLONA de Caxiuanã'') is a
national forest National Forest may refer to:
* National forest or state forest, a forest administered or protected by a sovereign state
** National forest (Brazil)
** National forest (France)
** National forest (United States)
** State Forests (Poland)
** The N ...
located in lower Amazon region the state of
Pará
Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...
Baía de Caxiuanã Baia is a commune in Suceava County, Romania.
Baia may also refer to :
Populated places and jurisdictions In Africa
* Baia, Numidia, an ancient former city and bishopric, now a Latin catholic titular see
* Baía, Angola, town near Luanda
* Ba ...
between the
Xingu River
The Xingu River ( ; ; ) 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.
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Description and history
The fir ...
and downstream from the Anapu River. The forest is located southeast of the Ilha do
Marajó
Marajó () is a large coastal island in the state of Pará, Brazil. It is the main and largest of the islands in the Marajó Archipelago. Marajó Island is separated from the mainland by Marajó Bay, Pará River, smaller rivers (especially M ...
. Caxiuanã National Forest covers two municipalities in Pará, Portel (population: 47,967) and Melgaço (population: 25,153), but the forest itself is sparsely inhabited. It is located from the state capitol of
Belém
Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará), often called Belém of Pará, is the capital and largest city of the state of Pará in the north of B ...
.
Caxiuanã is noted for its rich biodiversity, geographic isolation, and a very low population density. The national forest is the oldest in
Amazônia Legal
Brazil's Legal Amazon (abbreviation BLA), in Portuguese Amazônia Legal (), is the largest socio-geographic division in Brazil, containing all nine states in the Amazon basin. The government designated this region in 1948 based on its studies o ...
, a region that contains all 9 states in the
Amazon basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...
, and is also the second oldest national forest in Brazil.
Hearings on logging in Caxiuanã National Forest, part of a nationwide campaign to grant
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksBrazilian Forest Service (''Serviço Florestal Brasileiro'', SFB), began in 2014. A proposal calls for the logging of in three areas of Caxiuanã.
Administration and research stations
Caxiuanã National Forest was established on November 28, 1961, under federal law No. 239. It is managed 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 ...
(ICMBio), which maintains two bases in the forest. The Ferreira Penna Scientific Station (''Estação Científica Ferreira Penna'') is maintained by the
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi
The Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, commonly shortened MPEG, is a Brazilian research institution and museum located in the city of Belém, state of Pará, Brazil. It was founded in 1866 by Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna as the Pará Museum of Natur ...
and
Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources
The Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources ( Portuguese: ''Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis'', IBAMA) is a government agency under the administration of the Brazilian Minis ...
(''Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis'', IBAMA), and is the center of many international research projects. The research station covers , opened in 1993, and consists of laboratories and housing.
Climate
Caxiuanã is located in the humid tropical climate zone with an annual medium temperature of , and mean annual rainfall is . The forest has two seasons. The dry season runs from June to December, with rainfall declining to in October. The wet season runs from January to May and rainfall reaches in March.
Vegetation
Caxiuanã is in the
Tocantins–Araguaia–Maranhão moist forests
The Tocantins–Araguaia–Maranhão moist forests (NT0170), also called the Tocantins/Pindaré moist forests, is an ecoregion in the north of Brazil to the south of the mouth of the Amazon River. It is part of the Amazon biome.
The ecoregion conta ...
ecoregion.
The forest is noted for its diversity of vegetation. It is home to terra firme, a type of forest unique to the Amazon Basin where dead organic matter decays and is rapidly recycled into soil. Terra firme forests do not flood seasonally, and are easily and permanently destroyed by deforestation. Terra firme forests make up 85% of Caxiuanã, and have a canopy that reaches on average. The soil of the terra firme is characterized by
oxisol
Oxisols are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest within 25 degrees north and south of the Equator. In the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), they belong mainly to the ferrals ...
, a soil type typical of
tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...
.
Floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
forests unique to the
Amazon River Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
are also present in Caxiuanã. The várzea, a seasonal floodplain forest engulfed by white water rivers of the Amazon. The várzea forest areas are located around Caxiuanã Bay.
Igapó
(, from Tupi language, Old Tupi: "root forest") is a word used in Brazil for Blackwater river, blackwater-flooded forests in the Amazon biome. These forests and similar swamp forests are seasonally inundated with freshwater. They typically occur ...
is a seasonal floodplain forest engulfed by blackwater of the Amazon. Várzea and igapó flood plain forests make up 12% of Caxiuanã. Caxiuanã also contains areas of vegetation similar to that found in the
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...
, and areas that were formerly orchards and contain residual agricultural vegetation.
Population
Caxiuanã was once home to Arucará and Aricuru populations, both part of the Guaycuru people. 27 archaeological sites reveal that the forest was populated in ancient times.
The forest now has a small population of 29 families with 206 members (2003). The population of the forest are concentrated into three small villages. Residents engage in primitive agriculture, primarily for the production of
manioc
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...
flour. Fishing and hunting are also important sources of food.
Brazil nuts
The Brazil nut (''Bertholletia excelsa'') is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. ...
and açaí are also exported from the forest. The current population of the forest may not cause damage to the forest as they carry on practices of the prehistoric population of the forest. Research on the local population and its effect on the ecology of Caxiuanã, however, is lacking.
Access
Caxiuanã National Forest is accessible only by boat. The shortest route to the forest is made in two stages: first by air to the city of
Breves, Pará
Breves is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Pará, on the island of Marajó. Its population is estimated to be 103,497 people. The area of the municipality is 9,550.454 km². The city belongs to the mesoregion Marajó and to th ...
, also in the state of Pará, and then an 8-hour boat ride to the Caxiuanã. The trip can be made entirely by boat from Belém, a trip of 25 hours.