Parks - IUCN

The Serra do Mar
(Mountains of the
Sea) rise sharply
from Brazil’s
Atlantic coast
south of Rio de
Janeiro.
Photo:
Fabio Colombini.
PARKS VOL 9 NO 3 • OCTOBER 1999
Thus, although many individual
protected areas are in good shape, the
Serra do Mar corridor as a whole is
currently threatened by fragmentation
and habitat loss. The threat of
fragmentation is particularly disturbing:
few of the protected areas are ecologically
viable by themselves. Of the 14
conservation units at the core of the
corridor, 11 are smaller than 100,000
hectares, and 7 are smaller than 10,000
hectares. The larger protected areas
cannot shelter viable populations of top
predators: jaguars, for instance, need at
least 5,000 hectares of habitat per
individual in this region. The smaller
parks and reserves would lose even
larger portions of their biological diversity
if they were to be isolated: studies on the minimum critical size of tropical forest
fragments indicate that over time, fragments smaller than 10,000 hectares can lose
as much as 25% of their bird and mammal species.
The strategy proposed by a coalition of conservation groups calls for the corridor
to be implemented in three phases, whose scope and order of priority have been
determined by an analysis of the state of conservation and level of threat of each
sector of the Serra do Mar:
❚ Phase 1: Mangaratiba to São Sebastião. This sector of the Serra do Mar, in
addition to incorporating one of the most threatened sections, is widely believed to
be the core of the south-east Brazil Pleistocene refuge, and may be the most
species-rich region of the entire Atlantic rain forest. This sector has been thus chosen
for the first phase due to a combination of biodiversity, imminent threat of
fragmentation (particularly of foothill ecosystems), and existence of a coalition of
public and private interests willing to drive the process, including municipal and state
governments, citizen’s groups, academic circles, and local business.
❚ Phase 2: São Sebastião to Guaraqueçaba. Forest coverage is nearly continuous
along this sector, and protected area coverage leaves few gaps. This sector also
includes the only large areas where there are no coastal roads or resort towns at the
foot of the Serra do Mar, and consequently protected forests extend to the seashore.
Coordination of the many current conservation initiatives at the state and NGO levels
can result in effective consolidation of this sector of the corridor. This may in part
be achieved by the World Heritage designation for the Southeast Atlantic Forest
Reserves, which encompasses some of this section of the corridor (although it does
not encompass the centres of endemism located between São Sebastião and Santos.
❚ Phase 3: Desengano State Park to the Serra Geral. Once the sectors of the
corridor that currently display nearly continuous forest coverage are consolidated,
the much more ambitious goal of linking the entire Serra do Mar can be tackled. This
would involve considerable reforestation: the largest gap in forest coverage, between
Tinguá Biological Reserve and Mangaratiba Environmental Protection Area, both in
Rio de Janeiro, would require reforestation of abandoned pasture and coffee
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