The implantation of Marapendi Municipal Natural Park, in Rio de Janeiro

ABSTRACT The article tries to identify the main problems for the effective implantation of the Municipal Natural Park Marapendi (PNM of Marapendi), in Rio de Janeiro, as foreseen in the Master Plan of the city. The methodology is based in an extensive bibliography survey, complemented by field research and photography work, besides author participation in many debates about the subject. Some actions were identified that would contributed to that implementation, including the magnifying of PNM Marapendi by means of the annexation of the neighbor Municipal Natural Park of Barra da Tijuca (PNM of Barra da Tijuca). In author’s conception, the park could become an extraordinary leisure area, without loosing its characteristics of a typical shoal bush and preserving the local fauna. This park would have an area almost three times greater that of Flamengo’s Aterro, surrounding a lagoon with a water mirror a time and half bigger than that of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.