The Macauã National Forest () 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 ...

in the state of

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

, Brazil.

Location

The Macauã National Forest is in the municipality of

Sena Madureira Sena Madureira () is a municipality located in the center of the Brazilian state of Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, ...

in the state of Acre. It has an area of . It is in the

Amazon biome The Amazon biome () contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater river, blackwater and whitewa ...

. The forest is bounded to the west and north by the

Cazumbá-Iracema Extractive Reserve The Cazumbá-Iracema Extractive Reserve () is an Extractive reserve (Brazil), extractive reserve in the state of Acre (state), Acre, Brazil. The inhabitants extract rubber, Brazil nuts and other products from the forest for their own consumption o ...

, and to the southeast by the São Francisco National Forest. The Macauã River forms most of its southeast boundary. The forest would be included in the proposed Western Amazon Ecological Corridor.

Creation and operation

The Macauã National Forest was created by presidential decree 96.189 of 21 June 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 a government agency under the administration of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. It is nam ...

(ICMBio). 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 use of forest resources and scientific research with emphasis on methods for sustainable exploitation of native forests. A consultative council for the Macauã and São Francisco national forests was created on 18 January 2002. On 23 August 2006 the

Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária The Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária - INCRA (''National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform'') is a federal government authority of the public administration of Brazil. INCRA administers the land reform issues. ...

(National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform) recognised the forest as an agro-extractive project for 35 families. The management plan for the Macauã and São Francisco national forests was approved on 20 May 2016. are used for the production of wood totalling an estimated annually.

People

According to the 2007 census 25 families living in the forest, organised into the Associação de Extrativistas da Floresta Nacional do Macauã e Área de Entorno (ASSEXMA: Association of Extractors of the Macauã National Forest and Surrounding Area). As of 2010 there were 23 families living in the forest. All had been born there and most had never left the forest. They are descended from rubber tappers who came to the region in the late 19th century. After the production of rubber in Asia destroyed the demand for Brazilian rubber the tappers turned to raising crops such as corn and beans and extracting timber and nuts for money, as they still do today. More recently

copaiba Copaiba is an oleoresin obtained from the trunk of several pinnate-leaved South American leguminous trees (genus ''Copaifera''). The thick, transparent exudate varies in color from light gold to dark brown, depending on the ratio of resin to esse ...

has become a valuable forest product. Although there are

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

s, they are not a danger to people since there is abundant game. Residents take turtles, peccaries, monkeys and birds from the forest for food. Professional hunters take

margay The margay (''Leopardus wiedii'') is a small wild cat native to Mexico, Central and South America. A solitary and nocturnal felid, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted for the wildl ...

, jaguar and

anaconda Anacondas or water boas are a group of large boas of the genus ''Eunectes''. They are a semiaquatic group of snakes found in tropical South America. Three to five extant and one extinct species are currently recognized, including one of the l ...

for the leather trade.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * {{National forest (Brazil) 1988 establishments in Brazil National forests of Brazil Protected areas of Acre (state)