Feliciano Miguel Abdala Private Natural Heritage Reserve

Feliciano Miguel Abdala Private Natural Heritage Reserve
Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Feliciano Miguel Abdala
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
The reserve in January 2014
Nearest city	Caratinga, Minas Gerais
Coordinates	19°43′55″S 41°48′54″W / 19.732°S 41.815°W / -19.732; -41.815Coordinates: 19°43′55″S 41°48′54″W / 19.732°S 41.815°W / -19.732; -41.815
Area	957.57 hectares (2,366.2 acres)
Designation	Private natural heritage reserve
Created	3 September 2001
Administrator	Preserve-Muriqui
Website	www.preservemuriqui.org.br

Feliciano Miguel Abdala Private Natural Heritage Reserve (Portuguese: Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Feliciano Miguel Abdala), formerly the Fazenda Montes Claros and then the Caratinga Biological Station, is a privately-owned sustainable use protected area in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It contains an example of Atlantic Forest biome. The reserve is home to rare buffy-headed marmosets and to one of the last wild populations of northern muriqui woolly spider monkeys.

Feliciano Miguel Abdalla, the son of a Lebanese immigrant, obtained the Fazenda Montes Claros in Minas Gerais in 1944 on condition that he preserve the forest on the property. At this time the settlers in Minas Gerais were clearing the land for agriculture, and conservation was an alien concept. For many years he had to struggle against hunters and people looking to harvest timber and hearts of palm, sometimes at risk to his life. Towards the end of the 1960s Abdalla began to meet researchers. The professors Álvaro Aguirre and then Celio Valle introduced the woods to the scientific community. In 1977 professor Akira Nishimura began the first systemic study of the northern muriquis, to be followed by Russell Mittermeier and Karen Strier.

At the time the long-term study of the muriquis began Abdala was in his 70s. Besides the forest, his farm included an active coffee plantation and cattle ranch, and employed over 20 families whose houses were on the farm. Abdala put up researchers in his farmhouse until a small vacated house on the edge of the forest had been renovated. This house became the Caratinga Biological Station (Estação Biológica de Caratinga) in May 1983. The biological station was supported by Abdala, the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the World Wildlife Fund and the Brazilian Foundation for the Conservation of Nature (FBCN). Researchers found buffy-headed marmosets, an endangered species, as well as healthy populations of brown howler and tufted capuchin monkeys.