"This is the least disturbed tropical rainforest area on Earth," Conservation International president Russell Mittermeier told reporters at the fifth World Parks Congress under way in the eastern port city of Durban.

"The state of Amapa is by far the best place in the Brazilian Amazon to develop conservation initiatives because 96 percent of its natural ecosystems are still in place."

The Amapa Biodiversity Corridor on the northern tip of the Amazon and at the mouth of the Amazon River, links 12 protected areas, including the Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, a 3.8 million hectare site of remote, unexplored forests.

The corridor contains forests, wetlands, upland savannas and a range of species including jaguar, puma, monkeys, parrots, flamingoes and colourful hummingbirds.

It is also home to four tribes who will be involved in the management of the sites.

Amapa governor Waldez Goes said the corridor increased the total size of the protected areas from 7.8 million hectares to 10 million hectaresmillion acres).

"The corridor will be based on the idea of an integrated system of protected areas," Goes said.

The state and Conservation International will jointly invest some 16.6 million dollars into the management of the expanded area in the next four years.

The announcement was made at the 10-day parks congress where 2,500 delegates from across the world have been debating the future of the world's 100,000 protected areas and how to safeguard them. The dignitaries are also focusing on how to integrate and involve communities living in these areas.

Last week, the state of Amazonas, west of Amapa, announced six new protected areas covering 63 million hectares and extensive portions of tropical rainforest.

The Amazonia accounts for more than half of the world's remaining tropical rainforests, and more than 70 percent of the tropical rainforest wilderness areas.

Mittermeier said South America made up a large number of the world's protected areas.

"It certainly is a very large chunk and much of that is in the north of South America," Mittermeier said.

TERRA.WIRE