"The important thing is not the home where we live.
But where, in us, home lives."
But where, in us, home lives."
Mia Couto, in "A river called time, a house called land".
The Picinguaba Preservation Center was created in 1979, after the incorporation of the Picinguaba Farm to the Serra do Mar State Park, an area of the Municipality of Ubatuba, in Brazil south shore, 240 kilometers far from São Paulo: restingas, mangroves, beaches and rocky shores became part of the Park's protected scenery. Currently, this Center covers an area of 47,500 ha, 80% of the total territory of the municipality.
Located in the Vertente Litorânea Hydrographic Region, it has landscapes ranging from the sea coast to the Serra do Mar escarpments, protecting five beaches in the northern region of Ubatuba: Brava da Almada, Fazenda, Picinguaba, Cambury and Brava do Cambury.
The Picinguaba Center contributes to the regulation of air quality and the climate, protection of hills, slopes, soils and the cultural landscape and the ability to provide well-being to residents of the surroundings.
The nucleus preserves important rivers, which are used to supply the city of Ubatuba. This is the case of the Rio Grande Basin, responsible for supplying water to 88% of the municipality's population and formed by several rivers that originate in Serra do Mar, such as the Puruba river, the Quiririm river, the Grande river and the Prumirim river, between others.
In addition to its natural wealth, one of its main characteristics is the presence of traditional communities such as Picinguaba, Cambury, Sertão da Fazenda and Sertão do Ubatumirim: caiçara and quilombola cultures that ties with the forest and the sea and the search for sustainability through tourism.
The Picinguaba Nucleus is still part of the Bocaina Mosaic, a set of State and Federal protected areas in the Paraíba Valley, North Coast of São Paulo and Ilha Grande Bay region, on the south coast of Rio de Janeiro, which aims to integrate actions for environmental conservation and institutional and cultural strengthening, which is considered one of the most beautiful scenarios on the planet.
