Callicebus barbarabrownae is endemic to the Caatinga, and has been recorded in the Brazilian states of Bahia and Sergipe (Hershkovitz 1990b, Marinho-Filho and Veríssimo 1997, Printes et al. 2011 and 2013, Marques et al. 2013, Corsini and Moura 2014).

We regard barbarabrownae as a member of the genus Callicebus, subgenus Callicebus. The arguments presented by Byrne et al. (2016) to propose splitting Callicebus (as traditionally understood) into different genera are flawed for the same reasons we have already discussed under the account of Cebus libidinosus (see above).

The red list of the IUCN ver. 3.1 assigned the category “Critically Endangered” to Callicebus barbarabrownae (see Veiga et al. 2008). The species appears in the official list of threatened species of Brazil with the category “Critically Endangered” (ICMBIO-MMA 2016).