Fazenda Pacatuba Private Natural Heritage Reserve

The Fazenda Pacatuba Private Natural Heritage Reserve (Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Fazenda Pacatuba) is a private natural heritage reserve in the state of Paraíba, Brazil. It protects a population of red-handed howler monkeys.

Location
The Fazenda Pacatuba Private Natural Heritage Reserve in the municipality of Sapé, Paraíba in the Mata Paraibana mesoregion. It has an area of 266.53 ha, part of the larger 2600 ha Fazenda Pacatuba. The property belongs to the Japungú distillery. The reserve is 7 km from the municipal seat.

History
The Fazenda Pacatuba Private Natural Heritage Reserve was created by decree 110-N of 29 December 1995. Its purpose was to protect the red-handed howler (Alouatta belzebul), a primate that weighs about 5 kg, lives in the trees and eats fruit and leaves. The primate is endemic to Brazil and has two unconnected populations, one in the eastern Amazon region and the other in the Atlantic Forest north of the São Francisco River.

Environment
The reserve is in the Paraiba River basin. Soil is Tertiary sediments of sand or sand-clay, with low fertility. Altitudes are 75 to 150 m. The climate is northeast coast tropical, dominated by humid air masses from the Atlantic Ocean. Average annual rainfall is 1600 mm, falling mainly in the late summer and early winter.

The reserve contains one of the few remaining fragments of Atlantic Forest in the state of Paraíba. Vegetation is mainly seasonal semi-deciduous forest, with two types of formation. One is drier, wooded savanna and the other is more humid, with emergent trees up to 35 m and trunks up to 4 m in circumference, carrying abundant epiphytes. A study published in 2013 reported 24 species of ferns in 18 genera.