Mazagão


Mazagão is a municipality located in the south of the state of Amapá in Brazil. Its population is 17,030 and its area is.

Name

The city was named after the Portuguese colony Mazagão in North Africa, now El Jadida, which the Portuguese abandoned in 1769 after some 250 years of occupation. Many of its inhabitants were evacuated to Brazil, where they founded a new settlement Nova Mazagão, now known as Mazagão Velho.
A total of 340 families arrived in the city of Belém in 1770 and in 1773 went to Nova Mazagão. One of the main theories on the origin of the name of Mazagaon - one of the original Seven Islands of Bombay and still a historic neighborhood of Mumbai, India - derives this name, too, from the Moroccan city, since both were under Portuguese rule in the same time.

Conservation

The municipality contains 44% of the Rio Cajari Extractive Reserve, created in 1990.
It contains 19% of the Rio Iratapuru Sustainable Development Reserve, created in 1997.
It contains part of the Jari Ecological Station.
It also contains 8.56% of the Amapá State Forest, a sustainable use conservation unit established in 2006.