The Amazon is home to the world’s largest continuous stretch of mangroves, spanning nearly 8,000 square kilometers along the coasts of Amapá, Pará, and Maranhão. This region boasts remarkable biodiversity, thanks to the vast amount of organic matter carried by Amazonian rivers and deposited along the coastline. These factors give the Amazon mangroves unique characteristics compared to other mangrove areas in Brazil.
According to a study conducted by researchers from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), the Federal Rural University of the Amazon (Ufra), and the Vale Technological Institute (ITV), less than 1% of this continuous stretch of mangroves in the Amazon has been impacted by human activity, highlighting its high degree of conservation. This is largely due to the low population density of these coastal areas and the challenging access to the region’s mangroves.
Nevertheless, degradation is already evident in areas near urban centers, particularly in the municipality of Bragança, Pará. “Bragança experiences the greatest impact on Amazonian mangroves, especially along PA-458, where approximately 90 hectares of mangroves have been degraded since the early 1970s and have yet to recover,” notes biologist Marcus Fernandes, coordinator of the UFPA Bragança Campus Mangrove Ecology Laboratory (Lama). The highway, which connects Bragança to Ajuruteua Beach, has caused numerous environmental impacts, including landfilling of mangrove areas, alteration of tidal flows, and loss of flora and fauna.
DEGRADATION
“In addition, various locations within the mangrove region are subject to logging for fishing corrals, construction, firewood, and furniture making, as well as intensive harvesting of the uçá crab, all of which contribute to mangrove degradation,” Fernandes explains.
To prevent further degradation, promote reforestation, conduct ecosystem research, and provide environmental education to local communities, a project called “Amazon Mangroves” has been active in the region since 2021. “We aim to take a preventive approach to foster the conservation and sustainable use of mangroves and their ecosystem services,” states Marcus Fernandes, one of the specialists involved in the initiative.
Three Marine Extractive Reserves receive initial project phase
According to John Gomes, fisheries engineer and project manager of “Amazon Mangroves,” the initiative originated within the university but materialized through partnerships. The project is implemented by the Peabiru Institute in collaboration with the Sarambuí Association and the UFPA Mangrove Ecology Laboratory (LAMA), with sponsorship from Petrobras through the Petrobras Socio-environmental Program. “We joined forces to submit the proposal to Petrobras and were fortunate to have it approved,” Gomes recounts.
The project focuses on three main areas: reforestation, environmental education, and technical-scientific research. The first phase ran from 2021 to 2023 within the Marine Extractive Reserves (Resex Mar) of Tracuateua, in the municipality of Tracuateua; Caeté-Taperaçu, in Bragança; and Araí-Peroba, in Augusto Corrêa.
During its first two years, the project achieved significant results, always engaging the local population. Reforestation efforts were guided by community input identifying the most degraded areas. “In this period, 14 hectares were reforested, with an additional 35 hectares monitored at the edges of the reforested zones. We built two nurseries for producing seedlings of the three primary mangrove species (red, black, and white mangrove). In total, 204,372 seedlings were planted, with the potential to sequester 440 tons of carbon annually and remove over 23,000 tons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere,” Fernandes details. After reforestation, the recovered areas are monitored to track survival rates, mortality, and growth.
Local fishers share knowledge
According to Marcus Fernandes, the project’s success would not have been possible without the active participation of target communities in every stage—from seed collection and seedling production to planting and area monitoring.
Additionally, mapping of uçá crab fishing grounds and logging sites was conducted in partnership with local fishers to plan preventive actions and sustainable management. In each community hub, mapping was carried out through in-person meetings where fishers identified key areas, access routes (on foot, by canoe, or motorized boat), accessibility levels, and the number of fishers utilizing each area. Following these meetings, researchers and fishers embarked on field expeditions for site verification.
“Based on local fishers’ traditional knowledge, we identified more than 500 uçá crab fishing areas within the reserves covered by the Amazon Mangroves project. We developed management plans for crab harvesting and mangrove wood extraction. These results demonstrate the success of integrating scientific and traditional knowledge, promoting mangrove conservation and sustainable community development,” Fernandes asserts.
Second phase
Last year marked the start of the project's second phase following a renewed partnership with Petrobras. This phase expanded to include an additional Marine Extractive Reserve, Gurupi-Piriá, in the municipality of Viseu, Pará. The goal is to restore 24 more hectares of degraded areas and engage 5,620 direct participants, around 70% of whom are children and adolescents.
According to project manager John Gomes, this phase also offers an opportunity to implement tested actions, particularly in education and cultural engagement with communities. “Our work is essentially about raising awareness. We use reforestation to help people realize the importance of this ecosystem—for food resources and its many other ecological services. We incorporate this awareness into education and culture to encourage preservation, ensuring that we maintain the world’s largest continuous mangrove belt. So far, we have directly reached over five thousand people,” he explains.
Alfamangue supports childrens's literacy
Environmental education initiatives include AlfaMangue, which aids literacy for children aged 7 to 12 through mangrove-related themes; the Recreational Club, which offers nature-based activities for children aged 3 to 6; the Science Club, providing scientific exploration for 10- to 14-year-olds with an emphasis on mangrove ecosystems; and Young Mangrove Protectors (Promangue), which trains 15- to 23-year-olds in ecosystem services, nonviolent communication, mobile filmmaking, human rights, and other topics. The project also includes social and cultural initiatives, such as community discussions with psychosocial teams and CineResex, which brings cinema to local communities.
John Gomes says that support for communities is based on demands they report. “They tell us about their problems and we try to offer support so that we can improve their situation. So, when they say that their child is having difficulty learning to read and write, we invite them to AlfaMangue. This is why it is important for the community to be involved, because they really discuss it with us and we try to plan actions within our scope,” says the project manager.
CINEMA
For Moisés Araújo, a fisher from Acarpará in Bragança, the project’s main benefit has been community awareness. “Activities like the Mangrove Protectors and CineResex not only raise awareness but also introduce something new—cinema, which our community didn’t have access to before. And replanting efforts with schools help the community understand its role in ecosystem recovery. Before the projects, we weren’t really aware there were degraded areas that we need to preserve”, he observes.
According to Araújo, practical effects of the project are already visible. “In the recovered areas, we are seeing crabs again—something we had stopped finding in degraded zones. But the greatest gain for us as a community is awareness. It helps us achieve a better and more dignified life, in harmony with nature,” he reflects. Araújo, who began as a project volunteer, is now a paid employee, providing income for his family.
One of the world's most productive ecosystems
Biologist Marcus Fernandes emphasizes that Amazonian mangroves are among the planet’s most productive ecosystems. “The project’s actions help preserve mangrove biodiversity, which serves as a nursery for various marine and terrestrial species. Reforestation protects marine and terrestrial fauna, which depend on this environment for reproduction, development of young ones, food and a place to rest and shelter”,” he explains.
Beyond biodiversity, Amazon mangroves have exceptional carbon capture and storage capacity, potentially storing up to three times more carbon per hectare than tropical forests. “Mangroves have a high potential for carbon sequestration, surpassing many other terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The reason is because they accumulate large quantities of organic matter in the soil, where carbon is stored for centuries or even million years”.
Balancing ecology and livelihoods
Other benefits of mangrove conservation include stabilizing the soil, reducing erosion, protecting coastal communities from rising sea levels, maintaining water quality, and ensuring the ecological balance of estuaries and coastal zones. “Promoting environmental balance along the coastline guarantees food and economic security for local residents by providing fishery and forest resources, driving sustainable development in the coastal zone,” emphasizes Fernandes.
John Gomes also highlights the social and educational role in this process. “When children learn to read, visit universities, explore laboratories, and see beyond their daily reality, it becomes an opportunity for these communities. This project is our way of making a meaningful contribution—both in fighting climate change and in supporting communities that lack access to basic rights,” he states.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The production of Liberal Amazon is one of the initiatives of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Liberal Group and the Federal University of Pará. The articles involving research from UFPA are revised by professionals from the academy. The translation of the content is also provided by the agreement, through the research project ET-Multi: Translation Studies: multifaces and multisemiotics.
