RPPN Pico do Peão

RPPN stands for Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural (Private Natural Heritage Reserve) in Brazil. Many institutions, organizations and the government itself have been working towards the defense of the Mata Atlântica (the Atlantic Forest) with initiatives to preserve, rescue and reconnect fragments of this forest, which shelters an extremely rich biodiversity and is designated as a World Biosphere Reserve. RPPNs are initiatives to rescue this natural patrimony. According to IBAMA (The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) a RPPN is a conservation unit in private area, a privately-owned nature reserve that is. Under the RPPN program, land use is restricted perpetually.

Rio Verde FM thoroughly supports the RPPN Pico do Peão and has embraced the idea since its implementation, helping with official documents for the registering process and promoting such kind of initiative.

The RPPN Pico do Peão is named after the hilly area where it is set on. The reserve is located in a farmland of 33.67 hectares in São Thomé das Letras, town in Minas Gerais’ state, in Brazil’s southeastern region. The reserve itself covers about 12.53 hectares of area. The land terrain is irregular and the vegetation is qualified as Atlantic semi-deciduous forest or Atlantic Interior forest.

The RPPN Pico do Peão will keep untouched a creek called “Córrego da Serra”, native vegetation featuring medium and large trees and rich fauna.

Among the tree species, Pear trees (Pyrus), Diesel or Kerosene trees (Copaiferas), Cedars (Cedrus), Cinnamon trees (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), Ipê, Poui or Trumpet trees (Tabebuia), Jacarandas (Jacaranda), Brazilian Cherry or Cayenne Cherry (E.uniflora). The reserve also shelters capuchin monkeys, oncillas (Leopardus tigrinus), - also known as little spotted cat or tiger cat - bush dogs, lizards, many species of snakes, and birds such as toucans, red-legged seriemas, hawks, saracuras and many others.

The RPPN Pico do Peão is supported by the Aliança para a Conservação da Mata Atlântica (Alliance for the Atlantic Forest Conservation), an organization that cooperates with two ONGs – the SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation and the The Nature Conservancy – in order to broaden and cooperate with both ONGs’ actuation.
To learn more, go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Forest
www.aliancamataatlantica.org.br
http://www.brazilmax.com/news3.cfm/tborigem/fe_ecology/id/1
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/southamerica/brasil/press/press2949.html

reconnect fragments - the corridor strategy - Experts consider the private reserves as key elements in Brazil to the “corridor” strategy, a method now in vogue to preserve biodiversity. Under the approach, larger areas like national parks and wilderness areas are linked by corridors of smaller nature reserves that allow species to roam over a wider area, thus encouraging greater genetic diversity among sometimes dwindling populations. (Taken from www.brazilmax.com).