This is the first of a series of four articles about the “Degradation of the Pantanal Carioca,” as Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone wetlands were once known.
“To allow for its conservation and to enhance our species of fauna, this huge lagoon should be handed over to the Confederation of Brazilian Fishermen as a biological lagoon reserve. This institution’s leaders are true patriots for the moral and material assistance they dedicate to the legitimate cause of protecting nature.” — Magalhães Corrêa, 1936
These words were written by Magalhães Corrêa in his 1936 book O Sertão Carioca (“Rio de Janeiro’s Hinterlands“). An artist and professor at the National Museum and at the School of Fine Arts—both of which are now part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)—as well as a journalist at the Correio da Manhã newspaper, he documented rivers, lagoons, sandbanks, fauna, and flora with great precision and detail, and also the local habits of the residents of the Jacarepaguá lowlands—a vast territory in Rio de Janeiro, between the Tijuca and Pedra Branca massifs.
The word Jacarepaguá—yacaré-upá-quá in the indigenous Tupi-Guarani language—means “alligator valley” or “shallow alligator lagoon.” According to technical information by Rio de Janeiro’s State Environmental Institute (INEA), the Jacarepaguá Lagoon Complex in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone is formed by the Tijuca, Jacarepaguá, Marapendi and Camorim lagoons. Measuring around 280km2, the complex’s drainage basin is formed by numerous rivers that run down from the massifs and drain into the lagoons, connected to the ocean through the Joatinga Channel that allows for the exchange of fresh and sea water. The “Pantanal Carioca“, as this wetland region is known, is rich in biodiversity,