The Forno Grande State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual do Forno Grande) is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

in the state of

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist attra ...

, Brazil. It protects an area of

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

and the second highest peak in the state.

Location

The Forno Grande State Park is in the municipality of

Castelo, Espírito Santo Castelo is a municipality in the southwest of the state of Espírito Santo in Brazil. Its population was 37,747 (2020) and its area is 664 km². History There is information on two Amerindian tribes inhabiting the area before the colonial era ...

. It has an area of . It protects the second highest peak in the state of Espírito Santo, the Forno Grande Peak. It contains trails and waterfalls. The area includes a large

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

at the top of the peak. It is home to endangered species such as the

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

(''Puma concolor''),

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

(''Leopardus pardalis'') and

southern muriqui The southern muriqui (''Brachyteles arachnoides'') is a muriqui (woolly spider monkey) species endemic to Brazil. Taxonomy Taxonomy of muriquis is controversial because some scientists believe that they are a monotypic genus while others favo ...

(''Brachyteles arachnoides''). The park includes a visitor center with the ''Onça Pintada'' (Cougar) museum, and is open daily from 8:00 to 17:30. The visitor center has restrooms, drinking fountains and collections of fauna and flora. There is also a small accommodation for researchers with beds, mattresses, kitchen and bathroom. Camping is not allowed, and there is no restaurant in the park, but there are facilities nearby. The park gets about 200 visitors per month.

History

The Forno Grande State Park was created on 31 October 1960 as a forest reserve. In 1998 law 7.528 converted it to a state park with the objectives of conserving fauna and flora. It became part of the

Central Atlantic Forest Ecological Corridor The Central Atlantic Forest Ecological Corridor ( pt, Corredor Central da Mata Atlântica is an ecological corridor in the states of Espírito Santo and Bahia, Brazil. It promotes improvements to connectivity between fragments of Atlantic Forest ...

, created in 2002. It has been administered by the State Institute of the Environment and Water Resources (IEMA) since September 2007. The park was closed to visitors indefinitely in September 2016 for safety reasons, to avoid fires after a long period of drought in which the two springs had dried up.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forno Grande State Park State parks of Brazil Protected areas of Espírito Santo 1998 establishments in Brazil