Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 April 2009
Monte Pascoal National Park contains an important remnant of Brazil's threatened Atlantic forest. It may not survive for much longer, however, because the park's fate is in the hands of two government agencies with conflicting objectives—one concerned with conserving species in the parks and the other concerned with the rights of indigenous people to those resources. Although the Pataxo Indians lived in these forests in the past without destroying their resource base, modern pressures have altered their ability to do so. If nothing is done, the forest as a home for threatened plants and animals and as a source of resources for people, will be lost.