- Biological Reserves
- National System of Conservation Units (SNUC)
- Non-Governmental Environmentalist Organizations
- Registered Natural Areas and Other Protected Areas
This federal government initiative designates conservation units as areas of special natural interest, legally recognized by the State as being protected with defined objectives and boundaries. They can be created by federal, state or local governments and, according to Law No. 6938 in 1981, they are one of the instruments of the National Policy on the Environment. Amongst the different methods used to ensure the protection of natural resources, the conservation units are a mechanism that enables:
1) the conservation in situ of significant parts of the natural ecosystems, preserving genetic diversity;
2) the use of a network of protected areas under the umbrella of the National System of Conservation Units that interact with each other in order to further the evolution process;
3) the ensuring of the self-regulation process of the ecosystems; and
4) community participation in conservation.
Brazil’s most important national conservation units are the State and National Parks, the Biological Reserves, the Ecological Reserves, the Ecological Stations and the Environmental Protection Areas.
The federal, state and municipal conservation units for the National System of Conservation Units that includes genetically sustainable biotic communities covering the broadest diversity of natural ecosystems within Brazil and her territorial waters with priority given to those in most danger of damage or destruction. Although the National System of Conservation Units has not yet been legally ratified, it should be emphasized that its philosophical and conceptual structure, in the form of a network of protected areas, has been planned since the creation of the first conservation units.