This study deals with the changes in the administrative and operational Federal Conservation Units (FCUs) from the creation of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), created by Law 11.516, of August 28, 2007, as a local authority under the Ministry of Environment and a member of the National Environment - SISNAMA (Law 6.938/81). These changes meant, among other things, the breakup of the institutional arrangement based on political division of the federation and decentralized state by superintendents, existing since the time of the Brazilian Institute for Forestry Development - IBDF (1967-1989), being held by the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resources - IBAMA, while he was responsible for managing the FCUs until 2007. Thismodel was replaced by a more centralized hub and implemented by ICMBio FCUs that initially tied directly to the central body without the mediation of regional structures. The federal conservation units have undergone numerous management bodies from the Park Service's ministry of agriculture to the boards of IBAMA and more recently ICMBIO. The objective was to critically analyze the changes introduced by ICMBIO compared to previous models, mainly deployed for the management of the Brazilian Institute of Environment - IBAMA (1989-2006). Analyzing the spatial rearrangement of institutional hierarchies to which local governments are subject of FCUs and whose recent modifications are justified because they offer better conditions for the implementation of these reach their goals of the law that established the National System of Conservation Units - SNUG (Law 9.985/2000). We analyzed the policies of public administration in Brazil focused on environmental issues, especially its effects on the management of FCUs and management models adopted over time and space, through the institutions initially charged with the responsibilities of managing FCUs up the latest IBAMA and ICMBIO. The creation of ICMBIO also represented significant changes in geopolitical arrangement and organizational management of FCUs. IBAMA maintained a decentralized structure which followed the outline of geopolitics federal and state superintendents based on where each UC was administratively linked to a particular state oversight and technically one of the national finalistic boards. Moreover, many FCUs have areas that are located in more than one state of the federation and therefore cover more than one jurisdiction. When created, ICMBio showed a pattern highly concentrator administration since ceased to exist intermediary bodies between the UC and the central administration. However, it is noticed that the concentrated structure ICMBio gradually decentralizing comes up with the creation of the Regional Coordination - CR and more recently the Centers for Integrated Management - NGI. Another initiative that also points to a move towards decentralization has been the official recognition of Mosaics of Conservation.
