Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area

The Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area (Área de Proteção Ambiental dos Campos de Manicoré) is an environmental protection area (APA) in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.

Location
The Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area (APA) is in the municipality of Manicoré, Amazonas. It has an area of 151993 ha. It is some distance to the north of the stretch of the Trans-Amazonian Highway (BR-230) between Humaitá and Apuí in the region between the Madeira River and the Aripuanã River. The Manicoré River defines the east boundary of the APA.

History
The Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area was created by presidential decree on 11 April 2016. The purpose was to protect biological diversity and control the process of occupying the region, in particular along the road being built between Santo Antônio de Matupi on BR-230 and the seat of the municipality of Manicoré on the Madeira River. Santo Antônio do Matupí is a major centre of logging in the region.

The APA was one of five conservation units created in last week before the provisional removal of president Dilma Rousseff, totalling 2600000 ha, all in the south of Amazonas state. These were the fully protected Manicoré Biological Reserve with 359063 ha and Acari National Park with 896407 ha, and the sustainable use Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area with 151993 ha, Aripuanã National Forest with 751295 ha and Urupadi National Forest with 537228 ha. The same package expanded the Amaná National Forest by 141000 ha.

With these units the Dilma government had created about 3400000 ha of new protected areas during her administration, compared to about 26800000 ha by her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Her administration had also reduced the area of seven protected areas in the Amazon to allow for construction of dams on the Tapajós.