Strategic land purchase to extend REGUA as biological corridor

The Atlantic Rainforest is a habitat under severe threat, with less than 7% of its original 330 million hectares of forest remaining, and only an estimated 2% still in its virgin state. With estimates of up to 8,000 endemic plant species and 600 endemic species of terrestrial vertebrates, the Atlantic Forest is considered to be one of the most biodiverse ecoregions in the world. Threats to the area as a whole come from forest clearance for agriculture (coffee in particular), pasture and for development, which all contribute to the gradual loss of habitat and wildlife. REGUA is currently managing the 6700 hectare Reserva Ecologica de Guapi Assu, in order to fulfil its objective of habitat and watershed preservation within the upper catchment of the Guapi Assu River, located within one of the last fragments of the Atlantic Rainforests in Rio de Janeiro State. The Reserve is located within the Três Picos State Park which covers a total of 46,000ha in area, but unfortunately is a good example of a “paper park”. Theoretically run by the IEF (Rio de Janeiro State Forestry Commission), funding is not available for compensations to land owners, and at the same time the government does not have resources to manage the entire area. The Reserva can be characterised as a mosaic of different ecosystem types: seasonal tropical forest, tropical wet cool transition and pre-montane forest. There is also a variety of varying age secondary forest, gallery forest, scrub, rough grassland, pasture and wetlands. More than fifty mammal species have been recorded on REGUA including Puma (Puma concolor), Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla), 18 species of bat and 4 primate species, including two Endangered species: Southern Muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides) and Tufted-ear Marmoset (Callithrix auritus). More than 400 bird species have been recorded on REGUA, 50 of which are endemic. REGUA has identified a small, but highly important property which is under immediate threat of conversion into housing development, a common occurrence, as REGUA is within close proximity to the urban expansion pressures of Rio de Janeiro. The property has an area of 35ha, which is relatively small and more expensive in comparison to recent land purchases, however it is a vital part of the long term extension plans for the reserve. This is due to its location directly adjacent to the current REGUA boundaries, and as one of the linking properties that will adjoin REGUA to the Primatology Centre of Rio de Janeiro.

The land purchase funded by IUCN aimed at securing areas of Atlantic Rainforest on the Serra do Mar mountainsides of the Guapiaçu river valley. The purchase of three properties totalling 48.9 hectares within the Matumbo gap also enables the arrest of vertical progression of urban construction into an area linking the forested 5000 hectare REGUA land and the forested 800 hectare Lemgruber farm. It further offered the right for the physical presence of REGUA rangers to reduce hunting and other anthropic pressures. This IUCN funding was instrumental not only in assisting with the purchase of these three properties, but also in levering a further 300,000 reais from the World Land Trust and ABC US to purchase another ten properties totalling 264 hectares of the 450 hectare Matumbo gap. This piece of land constitutes an important ecological corridor linking two large forested blocks and enables a lateral movement of animals and the continuation of the habitat as one area. The thirteen new properties are incorporated into REGUA land, which now totals 6,700 hectares. This area is fully protected under REGUA principles of land conservation.