President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) signed this Wednesday (21) the bill that changes the limits of the Serra dos Órgãos National Park, located in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
The proposal excludes from the limits of the park an area that is currently occupied and exploited by rural producers in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro.
The proposal, on the other hand, adds an area of still native and intact vegetation to the limits of the so-called Parnassus. With this, the park now has an area of 19,855 hectares – the original size was 20,024 protected hectares.
The bill was approved by the Senate at the end of August, amid protests from the opposition, which requested a slower procedure, and was also analyzed by the House Environment Committee – the proposal was taken straight to the plenary.
Parnaso currently covers part of the Rio de Janeiro municipalities of Teresópolis, Petrópolis, Magé and Guapimirim. It is the third oldest national park in the country.
The proposal approved by the senators removes from the limits of the park areas that are currently occupied by rural producers in Vale do Bonfim, in Petrópolis, and by the urbanized neighborhood of Barreira, in Guapimirim. These residents will now be able to have their occupation titles recognized.
These areas, according to the text, are no longer part of Parnaso and become part of the Environmental Protection Area of the Serrana Region of Petrópolis.
The text also declares other areas of public utility, with still native vegetation, to be integrated into the Serra dos Órgãos National Park.
“The sanction, therefore, intends to readjust the limits of the National Park in order to settle conflicts regarding park units that are occupied by residents and rural producers”, informed the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic in a note.
After the Senate’s proposal was approved, ICMBio – responsible for managing Brazilian natural parks – also informed in a note that it was a “technical and historical demand of the institute”.
“The project was built together with the population occupying areas inside the park, in almost a decade of dialogues, to repair the delimitation established at the time of the creation of the Federal Conservation Unit”, said the agency.
“The alteration of the park’s limits guarantees compensation in new preserved stretches of Atlantic forest, fulfilling the objective of conserving biodiversity. In addition, the PL also expands the Petrópolis Environmental Protection Area (APA), protecting the changes that occurred in the national park”, completes the text of the note.
The Senate’s approval of the bill came weeks after another proposal drastically reduced the limits of the Flona (Brazilian National Forest), which provoked a reaction from environmental entities.
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