Brazil is launching two major Amazon-conservation initiatives, the first of which is the world’s largest national park in a tropical forest. The park, named Tumucumaque Mountain National Park and located along the border with French Guyana in the northern state of Amapá, is 15,000 square miles (39,000 sq kms)—roughly the size of Belgium or Maryland. Declared a park on Aug. 22, it accounts for 27% of Amapá’s land area. President Fernando Henrique Cardoso was scheduled to announce the second initiative early this month at the Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. Called the Amazon Protected Areas Program (Arpa), the effort aims over the next four years to boost the share of nature-reserve land in the Brazilian Amazon to 10% from... [Log in to read more]