The Paulo César Vinha State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual Paulo César Vinha) 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 dunes, lagoons and marshes along the Atlantic shore.

Location

The Paulo César Vinha State Park is in the municipality of

Guarapari Guarapari is a coastal town of Espírito Santo, Brazil, a popular tourist destination. Its beach is famous for the high natural radioactivity level of its sand. Location Guarapari is a part of Greater Vitoria, 47 km south of the state capital ...

, Espírito Santo. It has an area of about . There is a visitor center where videos and slides of the park are shown and lectures given on environmental education. The park has of trails, starting about from a parking lot outside the park. The park is surrounded by the Setiba Environmental Protection Area, which acts as a buffer zone and also tries to protect the marine environment of the Três Ilhas Archipelago. The park has two beaches, the Sol and the Caraís. There are several islands and rocks offshore. The park contains diverse environments including lagoons, sand dunes and floodplains. The Caraís Lagoon is its main attraction. The lagoon has reddish water from the plant roots. Vegetation includes dry forest, permanently flooded forest, herbaceous marsh and open formations. Threatened species include the pimenteira rosa and ouriço preto.

History

The park was created by state decree 2993-N of 1990, with the original name of Setiba State Park. The purpose is to protect a continuous stretch of ''

restinga Restingas () are a distinct type of coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in eastern Brazil. They form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium-sized trees and shrubs adapted to the drier and nut ...

'', one of the most threatened of the

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 ...

ecosystems. By law 4.903 of 1994 it was renamed Paulo César Vinha State Park in honor of the biologist Paulo César Vinha, who was killed in 1993 for opposing sand mining in the region. 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.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paulo Cesar Vinha State Park State parks of Brazil Protected areas of Espírito Santo 1990 establishments in Brazil Protected areas established in 1990