The southern section, near to Manaus, is subject to pressure from poor residents of an official settlement project who clear forest to make charcoal for sale in the city.

The Rio Negro Left Bank Environmental Protection Area (APA) is divided between the Amazonas municipalities of Manaus (74.64%), Novo Airão (23.61%) and Presidente Figueiredo (1.75%).

The larger Aturiá–Apuauzinho section covers land to the north and east of the Anavilhanas National Park, which protects the Rio Negro's Anavilhanas archipelago in this region, and surrounds the Rio Negro State Park South Section on the west, north and east.

[1] The southern section contains two small segments of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project Area of Relevant Ecological Interest, created in 1985.

[2] The Rio Negro Left Bank Environmental Protection Area (APA) was created by Amazonas state governor decree 16.498 of 2 April 1995 for the purpose of protecting and conserving the quality the environment, natural systems and regional ecosystems while improving the lives of the local people.

[1] Law 2646 of 22 May 2001 prohibits activities in APAs that may damage the environment or biota including earth moving, mining and dredging.

Existing agriculture and livestock activities may continue, but not in ways that may damage the environment such as use of pesticides or overgrazing.

[1] The Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform – INCRA) created the Tarumã-Mirim Settlement Project on 10 August 1992, located parallel to the BR-174 Manaus-Boa Vista highway between the Tarumã-Açu and Tarumã-Mirim rivers.

The settlers engage in intensive deforestation in hillside and riparian areas, and often do not use the cleared land for farming.

[6] Economic activities with good potential include crafts using lianas and extraction of non-timber products and medicinal herbs for the pharmaceuticals industry.