Acari National Park

Lore & Background

Acari National Park is located north of the BR-230 Trans-Amazonian Highway in the Apuí–Jacareacanga section. It borders the Urupadi National Forest and the Alto Maués Ecological Station to the east. The park's objective is to protect the biological diversity of the Acari, Camaiú, Sucunduri, and Abacaxis rivers and their tributaries, as well as the physical landscape, to ensure sustainability of ecosystem services, contribute to environmental stability, and provide for recreational activities and ecotourism.

Reader's Guide

Acari National Park was one of five conservation units created in the last week before the provisional removal of President Dilma Rousseff, totaling 2,600,000 hectares (6,400,000 acres) in southern Amazonas. These included the fully protected Manicoré Biological Reserve and Acari National Park, along with sustainable-use areas such as the Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area, Aripuanã National Forest, and Urupadi National Forest. The same package expanded the Amanã National Forest by 141,000 hectares. With these units, the Dilma government created about 3,400,000 hectares of new protected areas during her administration, compared to about 26,800,000 hectares by her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Her administration also reduced the area of seven protected areas in the Amazon to allow for construction of dams on the Tapajós.

Geography & Setting

Nestled within the Amazon biome of Brazil's Amazonas state, Acari National Park spans portions of three municipalities: Borba, which encompasses nearly sixty percent of the park's territory, Novo Aripuanã at roughly twenty-nine percent, and Apuí covering just over eleven percent. The protected area lies just north of the BR-230 Trans-Amazonian Highway, specifically along the Apuí–Jacareacanga section, placing a major transportation corridor directly adjacent to one of the state's largest wilderness zones. To the east, the park shares its boundary with two other conservation designations: the Urupadi National Forest and the Alto Maués Ecological Station, creating a contiguous mosaic of protected Amazonian habitat. At approximately 896,411 hectares—over two million acres—the park represents a substantial expanse of the Amazon biome in the southern reaches of Amazonas, a region where the interplay of river systems and forested landscape defines the ecological character of the area.

Creation Amid Political Turbulence

The park came into existence through a federal decree signed on 11 May 2016, a date that carries particular historical weight. It was established in the final week before President Dilma Rousseff was provisionally removed from office, making its creation one of the last major conservation actions of her administration. Acari was not established in isolation; it formed part of a sweeping package of five new conservation units in southern Amazonas, collectively encompassing roughly 2.6 million hectares. Alongside Acari, the package included the fully protected Manicoré Biological Reserve, the sustainable-use Campos de Manicoré Environmental Protection Area, the Aripuanã National Forest, and the Urupadi National Forest. The same legislative action also expanded the existing Amanã National Forest by an additional 141,000 hectares. The timing and scale of these designations have made them a focal point in ongoing debates over the balance between conservation and development in the Brazilian Amazon.

Mandate & Stewardship

Day-to-day management of Acari National Park falls under the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, commonly known by its Portuguese acronym ICMBio. The institute's mandate for this particular unit is multifaceted. At its core, the park exists to safeguard the biological diversity found along four major river systems—the Acari, Camaiú, Sucunduri, and Abacaxis—along with their numerous tributaries, as well as the broader physical landscape they traverse. Beyond protecting species and habitats, the park is tasked with ensuring the long-term sustainability of ecosystem services that local and regional communities depend upon. The founding decree also envisions the park as a contributor to environmental stability across the wider region, while explicitly opening space for recreational activities that bring people into direct contact with natural environments. Ecotourism is named as a specific objective, suggesting a management model in which conservation and responsible human engagement with the landscape are mutually reinforcing rather than mutually exclusive.

Scale, Legacy & the Bigger Picture

Viewed within the broader arc of Brazilian conservation policy, Acari National Park occupies a significant yet complicated position. During her tenure, the Rousseff government established approximately 3.4 million hectares of new protected areas in the Amazon, a figure that, while considerable, falls well short of the roughly 26.8 million hectares created under her predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This disparity has become a recurring point of contention in political debates over environmental governance. Adding further complexity to the legacy, the Rousseff administration simultaneously reduced the boundaries of seven existing protected areas in the Amazon to make way for dam construction on the Tapajós River. Acari, at nearly 900,000 hectares, stands as the largest single unit in that final package of five designations. Its status as a fully protected national park, as opposed to a sustainable-use zone, marks it as one of the more strictly reserved tracts of Amazonian forest in southern Amazonas.

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