The Serra do Rola-Moça State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual da Serra do Rola-Moça) 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

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, Brazil. It protects a rugged area in the transition zone between

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are t ...

and

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 ...

. Springs in the park are important to the water supply of the state capital,

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

Location

The Serra do Rola-Moça State Park is in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, divided between the municipalities of Belo Horizonte,

Nova Lima Nova Lima is a municipality of about 87,000 people, whose downtown is located about 20 kilometers south of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the south-eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Mining is one of the main economical activities of the ...

Ibirité Ibirité is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Its population in 2020 was 182,153. History Ibirité was bor ...

and

Brumadinho Brumadinho () is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the Belo Horizonte metropolitan mesoregion and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. Brumadinho is at an altitude of 880 m. In 2020 the population wa ...

. It has an area of . It contains six important springs that supply water to the city, and this area is closed to the public.

History

The Serra do Rola-Moça State Park was created by governor

Hélio Garcia Hélio de Carvalho Garcia (March 16, 1931 – June 6, 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician. He served as Governor of Minas Gerais, governor of Minas Gerais from 1984 to 1987 and again from 1991 until 1995. Biography Garcia was born in Sa ...

by decree 36.071 of 27 September 1994. The Taboão, Rola-Moça, Barreirinho, Barreiro, Mutuca and Catarina water basins in the park protect the water sources used by the Minas Gerais Sanitation Company (COPASA/MG). Activities such as leisure and tourism that may interfere with biota in these areas were therefore prohibited, and the areas were administered by COPASA/MG. The State Forestry Institute (IEF) was made responsible for overall administration of the park and for developing plans for administration and environmental education. The consultative council included representatives of government and civil society organizations.

Environment

The park is in the transition zone between

and

. It contains areas of Atlantic Forest, cerrado,

Alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...

and rupestrian ferruginous fields. The ferruginous field vegetation, growing on the iron-bearing "''canga''" crust, is extremely rare and is found only in the iron quadrilateral of Minas Gerais and in the

Carajás Mountains The Carajás Mountains or Serra dos Carajás are a mountain range to the west of the municipality of Marabá in the Pará state of Brazil. Monte Redenção, Marabá's highest point, is located there. The mountains are contained in the Carajás ...

in the state of

Pará Pará is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian state) ...

. Visits to these fields are allowed only when accompanied by park monitors. The park has diverse flora with species of the

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

Bromeliaceae The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain o ...

families and

jacaranda ''Jacaranda'' is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. The generic name is also used as the common name. The species ''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' has achie ...

arnica ''Arnica'' is a genus of perennial plant, perennial, herbaceous plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). The genus name ''Arnica'' may be derived from the Greek language, Greek ''wikt:arni, arni'', "lamb", in reference to the plants' soft, h ...

and

cedrus ''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae (subfamily Abietoideae). They are native plant, native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altit ...

genera. Species include '' Cariniana legalis'', ''

Gochnatia polymorpha ''Gochnatia polymorpha'', the candeia or cambará, is a South American tree species in the family Asteraceae, native to Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=n ...

'' and ''

Vellozia squamata ''Vellozia'' is a plant genus in the family Velloziaceae, established in 1788. The genus is endemic to South America except for one species ''(V. tubiflora),'' whose range extends into Panama. Most of the species are native to Brazil, with a de ...

''. The park provides a refuge for endangered fauna 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''),

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

(''Leopardus tigrinus''),

maned wolf The maned wolf (''Chrysocyon brachyurus'') is a large canine of South America. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay, and is almost extinct in Uruguay. Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a w ...

(''Chrysocyon brachyurus''),

Pampas deer The Pampas deer (''Ozotoceros bezoarticus'') is a species of deer that live in the grasslands of South America at low elevations.Geist, Valerius. Deer of the world their evolution, behaviour, and ecology'. Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books, 1998 ...

(''Ozotoceros bezoarticus'') and

solitary tinamou The solitary tinamou (''Tinamus solitarius'') is a species of paleognath ground bird. This species is native to Atlantic forest of eastern Brazil. Taxonomy All tinamou are from the family Tinamidae, and in the larger scheme are also ratites. ...

(''Tinamus solitarius'').

Visiting

The park is open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm daily. Camping is not allowed. Access to trails, springs, waterfalls and nurseries requires advance scheduling. At the Nova Lima entrance there is a visitor center with an auditorium for 90 people, meeting rooms and rooms for the environmental police. At the Barreiro entrance in Belo Horizonte there is an auditorium for 60 people, offices, employee residences and the base of the environmental police. The park has hiking trails and lookouts. The Três Pedras, Planeta, Jatobá and Morro dos Veados lookouts provide panoramic views. The best time to visit is between April and October, when there is less rain.

Notes

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serra do Rola-Moça State Park State parks of Brazil Protected areas established in 1994 1994 establishments in Brazil Protected areas of Minas Gerais