Banco dos Cajuais

About Us

Banco dos Cajuais is a coastal wetland site comprising 73,353 hectares in the state of Ceará on the northeastern coast of Brazil. The site includes extensive tidal mudflats, beachfront, coastal scrub, mangrove and a mosaic of salt flats mixed with ponds used for salt extraction and shrimp farming. The core of the new WHSRN site is two existing and one proposed Environmental Protected Areas, which fall under the responsibility of the municipality of Icapuí.

The area was designated for supporting more than 1% of the total population of the rufa subspecies of Red Knot (Calidris canutus). This population has suffered steep declines in the last two decades and is listed as Critically Endangered in Brazil, and as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. The site also holds large numbers of the Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus griseus, representing at least 1% of the subspecies population and also considered Critically Endagered at the national level in Brazil.

Banco dos Cajuais is the third WHSRN site in Brazil, the others are Lagoa do Peixe in southern Brazil and Reentrâncias Maranhenses, which is north along the coast.

Boundary of Banco dos Cajuais. The different colored polygons represent present and proposed Environmental Protected Areas (APAs) including the APA Manguezal da Barra Grande (orange outline) and APA da Ponta Grossa (green outline) and the approximate area for the APA do Arrombado (blue outline) that is being proposed to complete a mosaic of protected areas. The pink lines are intended to link the areas between the APAs with a beach and marine boundary to define the total WHSRN site