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Brazil upgrades park to protect Amazon’s tallest tree, allows tourism

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South America’s tallest tree, a 400-year-old red angelim in the northern tip of the Brazilian Amazon, is the star of a newly created conservation area called the Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park. The area was officially sectioned off from the larger Paru State Forest on Sept. 30 for stronger protection. At 88.5 meters (290 feet), the towering Dinizia excelsa tree is nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty. Researchers encountered it in 2018 when they used airborne lasers to map the Amazon canopy, which typically peaks at 50 m (164 ft). They also identified other trees taller than 80 m (262 ft) nearby. Now, the 560,000-hectare (1.38-million-acre) Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park has been upgraded to the “full protection” category. This means that activities like logging, permitted under the “sustainable use” category when it was previously part of Paru State Park, can no longer be proposed in its bounds. While no logging has been documented thus far in the new conservation area, the move future-proofs the area against potential threats. “The idea behind the reclassification of this area is to protect the giant trees,” Paru State Park manager Ronaldison de Oliveira Farias told Mongabay by phone. “The area is completely preserved, without direct human impact. It’s intact, without residents, and that’s how we want to keep it.” Under the new rules, tourism and scientific research will be permitted in the area, and limited harvesting of Brazil nuts by surrounding communities will be allowed to continue.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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