Maracá Ecological Station () is an ecological station in

Boa Vista, Roraima Boa Vista (, literally ''Good View''; figuratively "Fairview") is the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima. Situated on the western bank of the Branco River, the city lies 109 km from Brazil's border with Venezuela, and 58 km away from t ...

, Brazil. It consists of a large island in the Uraricoera River that is covered by Amazon rainforest.

History

The Maracá Ecological Station was established by presidential decree on 2 June 1981. The station consists of the island of Maracá between the Santa Rosa and Maracá branches of the Uraricoera River in the municipality of

, with an area of . The Maracá Ecological Station now covers . It was established with the purpose of preserving a representative sample of the Amazon ecosystem. A grid of trails was designed by the Roraima regional center of PPBio, and completed in March 2006.

Status

As of 2009 the Ecological Station was a "strict nature reserve" under

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 ...

Ia, with a terrestrial area of . 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 ...

. The conservation unit is supported by the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program. It would be included in the proposed Northern Amazon Ecological Corridor. The White-bellied spider monkey (''Ateles belzebuth'') is a protected species in the reserve.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maraca Ecological Station Ecological stations of Brazil Boa Vista, Roraima Protected areas of Roraima Protected areas established in 1981 1981 establishments in Brazil