By Ruth Nogueron

The governor of the Brazilian State of Pará, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, has just signed a law that creates a network of protected areas covering over 16.5 million hectares, an area larger than England.

<!--startfragment -->The law creates the largest set of protected areas in Pará's history. Under the new law, 59 percent of the state (an increase of 13 percent) and 42 percent of the Brazilian Amazon are now protected. The law is intended to slow and stop the loss of biodiversity and illegal deforestation.

Earlier this year, WRI and Imazon released a comprehensive geospatial analysis of human activities and their impacts on forest degradation and conversion. Imazon used an updated human pressure analysis to help identify and prioritize new protected areas. The work was part of the information that Imazon provided to the Pará government to help it make better informed protection decisions.

Protected Areas in Pará

State Forests	Thousand Hectares
Paru State Forest, the largest conservation unit allocated for sustainable forest management in the world.	3,600
Trombetas State Forest, great potential for sustainable forest management and eco-tourism.	3,100
Faro State Forest	636
Amazônia State Forest	512
Iriri State Forest	440
Special focus on preserving important ecosystem features (biodiversity, water, threatened species)
Triunfo do Xingu	1,600
Santa Maria do Uruará	942
Other Protected Areas
Maicuro Biological Reserve, the largest biological reserve in Brazil	1,100