as a result, many scientific expeditions and projects take place on the island, in particular joint ventures between the brazilian navy (comando geral do corpo de fuzileiros navais) and the federal ruarl university of rio de janeiro (universidade federal rural do rio de janeiro).

while access to the ilha da marambaia is restricted, there are communities of people living on it.   

one of the first owners of this island was joaquim josé de sousa breves, the king of coffee' - a powerful land owner, who had 25 coffee farms and 6000 slaves.

he used the marambaia to let the slaves recover after the long trip across the ocean, before distributing them among his farms.