Brazil Protects Pantanal Private Wetland Reserve

GLAND, Switzerland, April 29, 2003 (ENS) - Brazil has designated a significant portion of the enormous Pantanal wetland in Mato Grosso State as a Wetland of International Importance, the Bureau of the Convention on Wetlands announced today. The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland system, covering millions of square miles of central-western Brazil, eastern Bolivia and eastern Paraguay.

Speaking from the Gland office of the Convention on Wetlands, Dwight Peck said the newly designated area is an extensive privately owned protected area, established as a reserve with government authorization, known as known as Poconé's Pantanal.

The reserve comes with such management aids as five fire control towers, an airplane, six boats, six all-terrain vehicles. Twenty-six professional staffers, 16 trained rangers, and an airplane pilot are employed.

The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland system. (Photo credit unknown)

The newly protected Pantanal site is a mix of permanent rivers, seasonal streams, permanent and seasonal floodplain fresh water lakes, shrub dominated wetlands, and seasonally flooded forests.

The site is Brazil's 8th wetland site designated under this Convention, known as the Ramsar Convention for the Iranian city where it was signed in 1971.

Peck said the site satisfies all eight Ramsar criteria for designation as a Wetland of International Importance and is an excellent ecological complement to the Pantanal Matogrossense, already on the Ramsar List.

Established in 1998 as a reserve, the site is owned by Serviço Nacional do Comercio (SESC), a non-profit organization created by law and funded through an annual contribution from private enterprises, with branches in every state in Brazil.

As a reserva particular de partimônio natural (RPPN), the reserve's legal status is said to differ from a national park only in terms of ownership; the owner could legally sell the area but, under the RPPN law, only if the objective of nature protection would not be altered.

The SESC administers this private reserve, under the supervision of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources. SESC is responsible for implementing a management plan and carrying out environmental education activities and non-intensive ecotourism at the site.

A rare Jabiru stork stands on the bank of a lagoon in the Pantanal. (Photo coutesy Marcello Miranda)

He describes several endangered species sheltering in the reserve including hyacinth macaws, giant otters, and marsh deer, as well as numerous nesting sites for the Jabiru Jabiru mycteria, a large stork with a long, black bill.

Populations of over 20,000 cormorants and some of the Pantanal's healthiest nesting sites for wood storks are also found within the reserve, he says.

Many of the 260 fish species in the Pantanal are also believed to be found in the reserve, a good number having a high commercial value, says Montes. Since sport and commercial fishing is prohibited inside, the reserve provides essential ecological refuge for fish in the Cuiabá and Sâo Lourenço rivers.