Curbing the arc of deforestation in Brazil
In December 2003, Fauna & Flora International started a partnership with the Cristalino Ecological Foundation to help secure the 184,000-hectare Cristalino State Park and its surroundings - one of the highest priority conservation areas in the Brazilian Amazon.
Cristalino's conservation status is due to its high levels of endemism, diversity of vegetation and habitats, and the urgent need for its protection given the pressure upon it from smallholders, loggers, large cattle ranching prospectors and soya bean plantation owners.
As a whole, the region’s exceptional biodiversity is due to it being situated in the transition zone between ‘cerrado’ grassland and the Amazon forest. It also lies between two of the Amazon’s major tributaries, which prevents the dispersal of certain species. These factors account for why it is one of the few places on Earth where animals such as the white-whiskered spider monkey Ateles marginatus can be found.
Fauna & Flora International is working with local partners to protect the Cristalino State Park and its surroundings to encourage ecotourism. We are also working with other groups to conserve the landscape area around it - the Teles Pires - Tapajos Corridor, which is receiving help from Cool Earth through direct public involvement to fund on-the-ground management and field costs necessary for the area’s future protection.
In late 2006 the State government of Mato Grosso voted to reduce the Cristalino park by 27,000 hectares, a threat narrowly averted by a concerted campaign by Cristalino’s supporters. Although the Ministerio Publico has ruled that any reduction of the park is illegal, it is clear that there are vested interests in Mato Grosso state where the park lies that do not consider the preservation of forest to be important. Fauna & Flora International and its partners will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the Cristalino State Park remains protected. We will also continue to work with the Federal authorities towards the declaration of the Teles Pires – Tapajos Corridor.
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