Abstract
Brazil was the first country in Latin America to establish and regulate this type of reserve, and there are currently more than 700 Private Nature Heritage Reserves (RPPN in Portuguese) officially recognized by either federal or state environmental agencies. Together, these RPPN protect more than a half million hectares of land in the country. The coastal forests in the southern part of Bahia State extend 100 to 200 km inland, gradually changing in physiognomy as they occupy the dryer inland areas. The coastal forest has been subjected to intense deforestation, and currently occupies less than 10% of its original area. For this work the creation processes of the RPPN were consulted to obtain the data creation time, size of property, the condition of the remaining forest, succession chain and the last paid tax. After that, interviews with the owners were made to confirm this data. Sixteen RPPN have been established in this region until 2005. Their sizes vary from 4.7 to 800 ha. Ten of these RPPN are located within state or federal conservation areas or their buffer zones. In spite of the numerous national and international conservation strategies and environmental policies focused on the region, the present situation of the cocoa zone is threatening the conservation of the region's natural resources. The establishment of private reserves in the cocoa region could conceivably improve these conservation efforts. This type of reserve can be established under a uniform system supported by federal legislation, and could count on private organizations.
Highlights
There are currently 720 Reservas Particulares do Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) officially recognized by the IBAMA or by state authorities (MESQUITA and VIEIRA, 2004). These reserves protect more than 520 000 hectares within the various biomes in Brazil. While this number may seem small in comparison to the more than 540 million hectares included within public protection areas, the importance of these protected private lands must be highly stressed in light of the fact that these farmers, institutions, and companies could otherwise be using these areas for agriculture or cattle ranching (MESQUITA and VIEIRA, 2004)
For this work we reviewed the process of creation of RPPN at IBAMA headquarters in Salvador, in order to identify: property size, percentage of area preserved, stage of vegetation succession - divided according to the Federal Decree No 750 / 93 in (initial (I), mid (M) and final (F) stages of regeneration, PF - primary forest), interval between the beginning and end of the process, date of first land title, number of owners in history since the first land title; last rural paid land tax and annual tax value (U.S $) per hectare
The spatial configuration of these areas (Figure 1) reveals the existence of a number of gaps and a lack of connectivity between the different Protected Areas (PA), and shows that a significant number (57%) of RPPN are located within the buffer zones of the Full Protection PA
Summary
The creation of PA in Brazil was normalized in 2000 by Federal Law no 9,985/2000 that established the National System of Conservation Areas - SNUC, as later regulated by Federal Decree no 4,340, in 2002. Associated with the Full Protection Areas are buffer zones These are areas external to the PA (usually including private holding) in which the uses of the component natural resources are regulated due to their proximity to the CA. These buffer zones are designed to be established and administered with the object of minimizing environmental impacts to the reserve, and to evaluated the economic impact on local human populations, and should include or recruit these residents into overall management of the PA itself (WELLS and BRANDON, 1993). This visitation could generate an alternative source of income for local populations and relieve pressure on the native vegetation and/or replace other non selfsustaining activities
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