Protected Areas

Priority Areas for Conservation,Sustainable Use and Sharingof Benefits from BrazilianBiodiversity: UpdateOne of the greatest challenges faced bystakeholders as regards the conservationof biodiversity is the establishing of local,regional and national policies that areessential for political decisions to betranslated into concrete actions throughthe efficient employment of availablefinancial resources.For this reason, between 1998 and2000, the Ministry of the Environmentcoordinated a project entitled“Assessment and Identification of PriorityAreas for Conservation of BrazilianBiomes”. At the end of the process 900were defined and established by Decree5092 of May 24, 2004 and instituted byMMA Administrative Decree 126 of May27, 2004. The decree states that theseareas shall be periodically reviewed,in periods no longer than 10 years, inlight of the advancing knowledge andenvironmental conditions.The process for updating priority areasuses a methodology that incorporatedthe principles of Systematic Planningfor Conservation and its basic criteria(representativity, persistence andvulnerability) and thus places priority onthe participatory process for negotiatingand reaching consensus. For suchpurpose, a greater number of sectors andgroups related to environmental matterswas involved and made the processeven more legitimate as it considersvarious interests. This methodologywas addressed during the workshopentitled “Priority Areas for Conservation,Sustainable Use and Sharing of Benefitsof Brazilian Biodiversity – Targetsand Instruments”, which was held inNovember of 2005 and later approved byConabio’s Deliberation 39 of December14, 2005. Such methodology used theMap of Brazil’s Biomes (IBGE, 2004)as its base and used an approach thatfosters greater objectivity and efficiency,creates a memory of the priorityidentificationprocess, fosters greaterparticipation, and generates informationthat can allow for informed decisions andcapacity for assessing opportunities.The process for updating prioritybiodiversity areas and actions wassimultaneously carried out in the scope ofall Brazilian biomes and counted on thesupport from various institutions. The firststages of the process were the “TechnicalMeetings per Biome”, which took placebetween May and September of 2006.During these meetings the conservationtargets were defined, as were the goalsand relative importance of each target.During these meetings, a “Map of Areasof Importance for Biodiversity” waselaborated. These products subsidizedthe “Regional Seminars on the Biomes”,which took place between October andDecember of 2006. The results of theRegional Seminars on the Biomes weresummarized in the map through theupdating of priority areas for biodiversity,which was approved by ConabioDeliberation 46 of December 20, 2006.Results produced include a map anda data base with 2684 priority areashaving been indicated and approved bysociety. Of these priority areas, 1123are already protected (as protectedarea sites or as indigenous lands), andanother 1561 are areas that do not havea protection status. The Atlantic Forestand Amazon biomes aggregate 63% of allpriority areas, with 880 and 824 areasrespectively. Included in the updatedmap are the Cerrado’s 431 areas, theCaatinga’s 292, the Pampas 105, theMarine Zone’s 102, and the Pantanal’s50.47