EXPLORE BRAZIL’S CENTRAL AMAZON CONSERVATION COMPLEX with this slideshow, check the location map and get all the facts and information below.
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Location and Values: Brazil’s Central Amazon Conservation Complex is one of the world’s largest conservation areas, protecting a massive 53,000 km2 of the central Amazon rainforest and its exceptional biodiversity. It includes vast areas of seasonally-flooded ‘varzea’ and ‘igapo’ forests and a constantly evolving mosaic of river channels, lakes and landforms.
Conservation Status and Prospects. According to IUCN’s recent Conservation Outlook Assessment the conservation status of this site is ‘good with some concerns’. The IUCN report notes that ‘overall, the conservation values of this very large property are in good condition, with only minor human impacts around settled areas. While local riverside communities engage in subsistence agriculture, hunting, fishing, and extraction of timber and non-timber forest products human population density remains low and impacts are limited to narrow bands of higher land on natural levees along stream courses. Overall, protection and management of the conservation complex is quite effective. Despite the currently very good state of conservation, the expected consequences of anticipated climate change and potentially increasing pressures due to urban expansion and better access (provided for example by a recently constructed bridge) give rise to some concerns.’
Links:
Google Earth
Official UNESCO Site Details
IUCN Conservation Outlook
UNEP-WCMC Site Description
Birdlife IBA
Slideshow description
The photos in this slideshow are intended to ‘tell the story’ of Brazil’s Central Amazon Conservation Complex, showing the area’s flooded forest landscapes, plants and animals, people, threats and conservation needs. It includes recent photographs from a river trip up the Rio Negro from Manaus, through the Anavilhas archipelago and into Jau National Park, with photos of many of the area’s unusual birds and mammals. These include pink river dolphins, Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth, Amazonian manatee, woolly monkey, white-bellied and black-faced spider monkeys, various species of river turtles, birds such as the red-billed and Toco toucan and festive Amazon parrot and a selection of the region’s incredible diversity of fishes. This page of the website is still under development and a more detailed description of the various aspects of the site which are illustrated in the slideshow will be included in due course – so please come back again soon!
Factfile
Website Category: Tropical & Sub-tropical Forests
Area: 53,230 km2
Inscribed: 2000 (Extension 2003)
Criteria:
- Ecological processes (ix);
- Natural habitat for biodiversity (x);
- Significant number of rare, endemic and/or endangered species (x)
