Qualla: Juma Sustainable Development Reserve

Juma Sustainable Development Reserve: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Somewhere between the Mariepaua and Acari rivers, in the deep interior of Amazonas state, ceramics and stone axes lie buried in the soil -- evidence that people have farmed this land for nearly two thousand years. The Juma Sustainable Development Reserve covers 589,611 hectares of that same ground, and the 157 families who live here today carry on a relationship with the forest that predates European contact by centuries. What makes Juma different from dozens of other Amazonian reserves is a single distinction: in 2008, it became the first place in Brazil to be funded through a REDD project, turning the simple act of not cutting down trees into a source of income.

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Juma Sustainable Development Reserve: A River-Drawn Map

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liana Amin Lima, CC BY-SA 3.0. The reserve reads like a lesson in Amazonian geography. The Mariepaua River, a tributary of the mighty Madeira, traces the western boundary. The Acari River marks the east. Between them, the northern reach of the Aripuana River cuts through the interior before emptying into the M...

Image: Liana Amin Lima | CC BY-SA 3.0

Juma Sustainable Development Reserve: Twenty-One Primates and Counting

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liana Amin Lima, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Aripuana River region holds a biological distinction that even seasoned researchers find remarkable: twenty-one species of primates have been documented here, the highest level of primate diversity recorded anywhere on Earth. The clear waters of the Aripuana -- one of the Mad...

Image: Liana Amin Lima | CC BY-SA 3.0

Juma Sustainable Development Reserve: Paying Forests to Stand

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liana Amin Lima, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 2007, more than seventeen percent of the original Amazon forest had been destroyed, and computer models projected that figure could reach thirty percent by 2050 under a business-as-usual scenario. Paving the BR-319 and AM-174 highways would only accelerate the loss. The state ...

Image: Liana Amin Lima | CC BY-SA 3.0

Juma Sustainable Development Reserve: Guardians and Governance

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liana Amin Lima, CC BY-SA 3.0. Running a reserve the size of a small country requires structure. The Juma RDS is administered by the Centro Estadual de Unidades de Conservacao do Amazonas, and its deliberative council was formally established on July 17, 2009. A management plan followed in March 2010, approved...

Image: Liana Amin Lima | CC BY-SA 3.0