Brazil’s federal government created a huge conservation area on March 6 to protect a critical biodiversity hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean. The newly created Albardão marine park and coastal environmental protected area are home to at least 25 endangered species and Pleistocene epoch megafauna fossils.
The new national park is off the coast of Brazil’s southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, and spans more than 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres), making it the country’s largest marine park and third-largest marine protected area. A buffer zone spanning an additional 614,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) was also included in the government decree.
“The Albardão region brings together ecosystems that are fundamental for Brazil’s biodiversity,” the federal government wrote in a statement. “The site is considered strategic for the life cycle of several threatened species.”
The government decree creates some exemptions for sustainable ecotourism, scientific research and artisanal fishing in the marine and coastal protected areas.
The Albardão Marine Park is home to endangered Lahille’s bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus gephyreus), of which just 500 individuals are alive today, and franciscana dolphins (Pontoporia blainvillei), listed as critically endangered in Brazil and vulnerable worldwide.
Another 23 species of endangered sharks and rays also inhabit the region, including endangered angelshark species, which a 2025 Mongabay investigation revealed was being served in local school lunches. Also in the area are the critically endangered bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostomus).
An adjacent coastal protected area was also created, spanning nearly 56,000 hectares (138,000 acres). It includes dune fields and natural shell deposits where paleontologists have dug up Pleistocene megafauna such as the ground sloth, the saber-toothed cat, the giant armadillo and mastodons, an extinct relative of elephants.
The areas had been recommended for environmental protection since 2004, according to the federal government.
The decision has sparked controversy though. State-level governments were looking to the area for offshore wind power generation, which had been included as part of Rio Grande do Sul’s state energy transition program.
In 2024, the state’s Vice Governor Gabriel Souza wrote on his social media accounts that the creation of the marine park would prevent the region from reaching its renewable energy goals.
In a statement, Rio Grande do Sul’s environment and infrastructure department requested the inclusion of infrastructure corridors for territorial connectivity, mobility and state energy planning, which was partially granted.
Wind farms will not be allowed; however, ship traffic is permitted in the entire area. Also allowed are infrastructure corridors to connect offshore gas, oil and wind projects beyond the protected area to the mainland, as long as the environmental objectives of the marine park are respected.
Banner image: The Albardão dune fields in the extreme south of Brazil’s southernmost Rio Grande do Sul state. Image courtesy of ICMBio.
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