Protected areas are an important instrument for the conservation of natural resources. They were firstly demarcated in Brazil in the 1930s and, since then, they went through a long process of evolution resulting in the creation of a series of distinct typologies and categories of protected areas. The present study aims to analyze the evolution of these categories of protected areas in Brazil, in order to evaluate the logic behind their creation as well as their insertion in the main national and international political contexts. Aspects related to the management of the actual system are also herein discussed.
Protected Areas; Conservation Unities; environmental policy
