The Chapada Diamantina National Park (; pt, Parque Nacional da Chapada Diamantina) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in the

Chapada Diamantina Chapada Diamantina (; Portuguese for the "Diamond Plateau") is a region of Bahia state, in the Northeast of Brazil. This mountain range is known as “Serra do Espinhaço,” in Minas Gerais state, south of Bahia. Description The Chapada Di ...

region of the State of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

, Brazil. The terrain is rugged, and mainly covered by flora of the

Caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

biome.

Location

The park is in the

biome, and covers . It was created by decree 91.655 of 17 September 1985, and is administered by the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...

. The park covers parts of the municipalities of

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

, Mucugê,

Lençóis Lençóis is a municipality in the state of Bahia in Brazil. The population is 11,499 (2020 est.) in an area of 1277 km². The town has a well-preserved colonial atmosphere and is the starting point for treks into Chapada Diamantina Chap ...

Ibicoara Ibicoara is a municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Bahia This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Bahia (BA), located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Bahia i ...

and

Andaraí Andaraí is a municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Bahia This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Bahia (BA), located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Bahia ...

in the state of Bahia.

Terrain

The park is in the

, a plateau bounded by cliffs of in central Bahia. Altitudes in the plateau typically vary from . In the more mountainous parts there are several peaks of , and a few over . The plateau forms a watershed, draining on one side into the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...

and on the other into the De Contas River and

Paraguaçu River The Paraguaçu River () is a river in Bahia state of eastern Brazil. It runs from the Chapada Diamantina highlands of central Bahia to its mouth at the Baía de Todos os Santos. The Paraguaçu is the largest river entirely within Bahia. Its banks ...

. The park lies in the rugged Sincorá Range in the east of the plateau, an area of folded and heavily eroded structures. The range is elongated in a north-south direction, and has an average width of . The highest point of the state is in the park, the

Pico do Barbado Pico do Barbado is the highest mountain in the Brazilian state of Bahia, and the highest in all Northeastern Brazil, reaching above sea level. It is located within the area of the Chapada Diamantina National Park The Chapada Diamantina Nationa ...

. Both

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

s have been found in the range. The range forces moist air moving west from sea upward which causes higher levels of rainfall, particularly in the east. There are many systems of caves formed by the rivers of the region.

Flora and fauna

Vegetation includes typical Caatinga

xerophytic A xerophyte (from Greek ξηρός ''xeros'' 'dry' + φυτόν ''phuton'' 'plant') is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water, such as a desert such as the Sahara or places in the Alps or th ...

formations at elevations from about ,

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 ...

vegetation along the watercourses, meadows and rocky fields higher up. Endemic flora include '' Adamantinia miltonioides'', '' Cattleya elongata'', '' Cattleya tenuis'', '' Cattleya x tenuata'', '' Cleites libonni'' and '' Cleistes metallina''. The hooded visorbearer (''Augastes lumachellus'') hummingbird is endemic. There are few large mammals, but many species of small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and insects.

Conservation

The park is classed as

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is part ...

II (national park). It has the objectives of preserving natural ecosystems of great ecological relevance and scenic beauty, enabling scientific research, environmental education, outdoors recreation and eco-tourism. Protected birds in the reserve include

white-necked hawk The white-necked hawk (''Buteogallus lacernulatus'') is a Vulnerable species of bird of prey in subfamily Accipitrinae, the "true" hawks, of family Accipitridae. It is endemic to Brazil.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claram ...

(''Buteogallus lacernulatus''),

Chaco eagle The Chaco eagle (''Buteogallus coronatus'') or crowned solitary eagle, is an endangered bird of prey from eastern and central South America. Typically it is known simply as the crowned eagle which leads to potential confusion with the African '' ...

(''Buteogallus coronatus''), Bahia tyrannulet (''Phylloscartes beckeri''),

ochre-marked parakeet The ochre-marked parakeet (''Pyrrhura cruentata'') is a species of parrot native to Brazil. It is also known as blue-throated parakeet and red-eared conure in English and ''tiriba-grande'', ''tiriba'', ''cara-suja'' and ''fura-mato-grande'' in P ...

(''Pyrrhura cruentata'') and Bahia spinetail (''Synallaxis whitneyi''). Other protected species include

Barbara Brown's titi Barbara Brown's titi monkey (''Callicebus barbarabrownae''), also popularly known as the blond titi monkey or northern Bahian blond titi, is a species of titi, a type of New World monkey. This critically endangered species is endemic to the Caat ...

(''Callicebus barbarabrownae''),

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''),

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

(''Panthera onca''),

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''),

giant armadillo The giant armadillo (''Priodontes maximus''), colloquially ''tatu-canastra'', ''tatou'', ''ocarro'' or ''tatú carreta'', is the largest living species of armadillo (although their extinct relatives, the Glyptodontidae, glyptodonts, were much l ...

(''Priodontes maximus'') and

giant anteater The giant anteater (''Myrmecophaga tridactyla'') is an insectivorous mammal native to Central and South America. It is one of four living species of anteaters, of which it is the largest member. The only extant member of the genus ''Myrmecopha ...

(''Myrmecophaga tridactyla'').

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{authority control National parks of Brazil Protected areas of Bahia 1985 establishments in Brazil Caatinga