Besides being the first municipality in the Tocantins State to develop its Municipal System of Conservation Units (SMUC), the Mayor of São Felix do Tocantins, Janio Silva Mendonça, signed on Saturday the decree creating the Natural Monument “Canyons e Corredeiras do Rio Sono”. Based on the municipal law no. 240 dated October 2011, that establishes the SMUC, the first municipal conservation unit of integral protection of Tocantins was created.
The initiative came up during the administration of Carlos Irael Ribeiro dos Reis in the Department of Tourism and Environment of the Municipality that worked closely with the Municipal Council of Tourism and Environment with the support of the Jalapão Region Ecological Corridor Project for the development of the preliminary studies that substantiate the proposed creation of the PA.
The JICA experts Renato Prado, responsible for early studies, and James Possapp attended to the ceremony, clarified pending doubts and presented to the community a proposal for the elaboration of the UC’s Management Plan based on a broad participation of the local community through the Council of Tourism and Environment and other community leaders. As per the proposal, the local population and institutions can participate throughout the whole process, especially in the participatory workshops and the public consultation planned.
In addition to the establishment of the new protected area, the Ecological Corridor Project/JICA is investing in the vegetation coverage and land use mapping of São Felix in the scale 1:25.000 and also in the creation of an educational video about the process of discussing the SMUC aiming to motivate other municipalities to discuss the environmental management at the local level and also to serve as a guideline for the creation of municipal PAs.
Author: James Possapp.
