page_title: National park (Brazil)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: National park (Brazil) / History
caption_attribution_description: Português: Maciço do Agulhas Negras visto do abrigo rebouças. Serrinha do Alambari.
context_page_description: National Parks are a legally-defined type of protected area of Brazil.
  The first parks were created in the 1930s, and other parks were gradually added, typically protecting a natural monument such as a waterfall or gorge near to a coastal population centre.
  At least two early parks were later submerged by hydroelectric reservoirs.
  The first park in the Amazon rainforest was inaugurated in 1974. Today the national parks cover a huge area, particularly in the Amazon.
  However, many of them suffer from outstanding claims for compensation from former owners or users of the land, and many lack the management plans, physical infrastructure and personnel needed to support public visits.
  The responsible government agency does not have the capacity to provide services such as food and drink, souvenir sales and guided tours, and bureaucracy has delayed letting the private sector bid on providing such services.
context_section_description: The concept of "national park" was first defined in the 1934 forest code.
  The system of national parks started in 1937 with the creation of Itatiaia National Park.
  Another two national parks were created in 1939, then after a period of 20 years, the program of park creation was restarted in the late 1950s.
  The Ubajara National Park was created in 1959, protecting a limestone cave in the semi-arid caatinga biome of the north east.
  The Paulo Afonso and Sete Quedas national parks were created in 1948 and 1961 respectively to let visitors see exceptional waterfalls and rapids. Although all countries define national parks as permanent, Brazil violated this principal and submerged the features under the dams of hydroelectric power plants.
  The forest code was revised in 1965 to cover all types of native vegetation, not just "forests".
  National parks and the newly-defined biological reserves were defined as having the goal of "protecting exceptional natural attributes, reconciling the full protection of flora, fauna and natural beauties with the use for educational, recreational and scientific purposes."
  Under the 1934 and 1965 codes the parks and other conservation units have been created by executive decree.
  As a result, Congress has tended not to give strong support to the parks, but they have been protected against ongoing congressional attempts to shrink or eliminate the parks.
  Many of the parks have their origins in federal or state forestry reserves used for a variety of research or conservation purposes, then donated to the federal government to become national parks.
  The effect of this random development was that by the late 1970s many of the parks were near coastal population centres.
  The Emas, Chapada dos Veadeiros, Brasília and Araguaia parks were in the interior, but situated where they could be used for leisure by government workers in Brasilia, which had become the national capital in 1960.
  The Amazônia National Park was created in 1974 on the Tapajós River, the first in the Amazon.
  It was designed to be accessible via the trans-Amazonian highway, which ran through the park.
  By 1978 there were eighteen national parks, of which nine were in the coastal Atlantic Forest biome near to large cities, typically including a monumental feature as the main attraction.
  Since then the number of parks increased steadily to 33 by 1990 and 64 by 2010.
  These 64 parks cover 240,000 square kilometres (93,000 sq mi). The largest are in the Amazon biome of the north and west of the country.
  It is costly to compensate former owners or people with usage rights and to prepare management plans.
  Funding is limited so many parks remained inaccessible to the public.
  Another issue is the cost of providing infrastructure and personnel to supervise visitors.
  Finally, for many years a park that generated income from visitors did not receive any benefit.
  In 1998 the Iguaçu National Park experimented with outsourcing public use services, causing a rise in visitor numbers.
  The private concessions in the Foz do Iguacu National Park allowed construction of a visitor centre, parking spaces, food and beverage services, transport service in the park and leisure and adventures activities.
  The experiment was not repeated elsewhere for several years.
caption: Pico das Agulhas Negras in the  Itatiaia National Park
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