Municipal Secretary of the Environment - SMAC
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Boundary and Management Plan
Management Plan Efforts
The natural area of 38000 m² where are embedded two of the most leisure locations for citizens and visitors, the Morro da Urca and Cláudio Coutinho trails, were recovered as a result of a partnership between the Municipal Secretary of the Environment (SMAC), the Parques e Jardins Foundation (FPJ) and the Bondinho do Pão de Açúcar.
In the Urca Hill trail, one of the Rio de Janeiro Federal State most important areas for outdoor activities, an environment degradation process could be easily noticed due to the lack of managements efforts. In order to achieve a proper nature recovery, specific interventions were performed, considering soil drainage and enrichment, besides the irregular shortcut trails closure and planting of native species.
Noticeable improvements could be observed along all Morro da Urca trail extension with those efforts. All the marginal flora were recovered and since the beginning of the management visitors can take advantage of educative ecological signalling, a support point, an observation spot to the Guanabara Bay, decks and wood walkways.
In the Claudio Coutinho trail, attended by more than 10 thousand visitors per weekend, the installation of new guardrails and full recovery of old ones were undertaken. New bilingual information signalling were manufactured and positioned all over the trail, aiming to encourage the visitors environmental awareness and promote an adequate use of the Natural Monument. Besides, benches were strategically place to enhance the visitors experience.
In order to recover the biodiversity in the above mentioned areas, a forest inventory were assembled to identify invasive alien species (IAS), such as Jackfruit trees and Leucenas, which promove an ecological unbalancing and threat native species growth. Up to 1 thousand seedlings are being used to replace IAS in a 6 years operation, avoiding loss of some ecosystem services, such as seeding and shelter to the Natural Monument fauna and shading for the Claudio Coutinho trail.
The benefits achieved by this project were elaborated by the Bondinho do Pão de Açúcar and submitted to analysis and approval of the Municipal Secretary of the Environment, Parques e Jardins Foundation and the Natural Foundation Advisory Council.