Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve

The Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, near the city of Tefé, is a 22,000-square-mile (57,000 km²) reserve near the village of Boca do Mamirauá. It includes mostly Amazonian flooded forest and wetlands.

Protection

Mamirauá is protected by the international Ramsar Convention of the IUCN, as a wetland of global importance. It has been proposed that the Reserve should form part of a future UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon. At present, it is included in one of the Ecological Corridors to be implemented by the PPG-7 Program for the Protection of Brazilian Tropical Forests.

The reserve is the legacy and life work of Brazilian scientist José Márcio Corrêa Ayres.

One of the tribes that live there are the Riberinho people who are co-operating with the scientists to help them gather data, in return the scientists teach them how to fish and hunt sustainably.

Wildlife

Mamirauá hosts a large diversity of birds, with more than 400 species recorded, including toucans, harpy eagle, hoatzin, 15 species of parrots and, specially, aquatic birds. Two species of monkeys, the white uakari and the black squirrel monkey, and one species of cat, the daphne otherwise known as the panthera loca,^{[clarification needed]} are endemic of this region, which is also home of other kinds of arboreal mammals such as howler monkeys, sloths, coati and collared anteaters. Land mammals are not that common as most of the territory is flooded during the wet season. During this season the pink dolphin is distributed in the flooded forest.

The most conspicuous of the numerous fish species are tambaqui, piranha and pirarucu. Mamirauá is also a perfect place to spot the Amazon river dolphins, both boto and tucuxi.

References

• Koziell, Izabella; Inoue, Christina Y. A. (2002). Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Brazil. IIED. ISBN 1843692414. 
• Bannerman, Matt; Marigo, Luiz Claudio; Azevêdo, Aline Da Rin P. (2001). Mamirauá: A Guide to the Natural History of the Amazon Flooded Forest. Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá. ISBN 8588758024.