Created just three years ago, the Área de Proteção Ambiental Jará (Jará Environmental Protection Area) - APA Jará, located in western Pará, in Juruty county, has already become an important instrument for biodiversity protection, reaching the mark of 5,000 hectares of preserved biodiversity, thus representing an important advance towards the Amazon’s sustainable development. The project is a result of a partnership between residents and civil organizations, the Town Hall of Juruti, Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente¬ (Institute of Man and the Environment) – Imazon, and Alcoa Foundation, which invested BRL 1.5 million - which allowed the establishment of conservation rules for the county’s urban area main spring.
Alcoa Foundation supports several biodiversity conservation initiatives throughout the Juruti region and has been investing for several years in promoting the APA Jará, thinking about generating jobs and income, as well as improving biodiversity, generating benefits for current and future generations”, says Otavio Carvalheira, president of Alcoa Brasil.
To guide and define APA Jará’s zoning and norms actions, Juruti sectoral representatives participated in the public consultation for the Management Plan approval. According to Imazon researcher, Jakeline Pereira, the Plan is a technical document built over a two-year period along with the APA Management Council. This document provides a socioeconomic, physical, and biotic environments diagnosis, as well as a discussion on what will be done in the conservation unit for the next five years.
The Imazon researcher also emphasizes that, within the first year, actions related to territorial planning, fishing, and land tenure regularization are foreseen, as well as activities that promote public use and good soil management.
“The fishing planning was one of the goals in creating APA Jará. Of the lakes that are within the APA, Lake Jará is under more pressure and did not have a Fishing Agreement until then. There are fishermen from out of town who also come from other communities that enter Lake Jará and put pressure on this ecosystem, carrying out this activity without any control. For this reason, the Management Council met with the county fishermen to format this Agreement, recently published by the Municipal Department of the Environment team”, informs Jakeline. According to data provided by Imazon, currently, more than 120 families reside within the Conservation Unit and another 2,800 in its surroundings.
APA Jará
APA Jará is an Environmental Protection Area, created by Municipal Decree No. 4,174 on December 3, 2019. Its objective is to protect biodiversity, organize the occupation process and promote sustainability in the use of natural resources to improve the quality of life of the local population. The Area is located in the town of Juruti, a territory that includes lakes Jará, Tucunaré, Laguinho, and part of Curumucuri, occupying an approximate area of 4,850 hectares.
