Jalapão State Park () is a

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

in the microregion of Jalapão in eastern

Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 2014 ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It contains a variety of landscapes including

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

vegetation, sand dunes and flat-topped plateaus.

Location

The Jalapão State Park lies in the municipality of Mateiros, Tocantins, and has an area of . The park covers the Espírito Santo dunes and mountains. It is relatively inaccessible, requiring a drive of about over dirt roads. It contains flat-topped plateaus bounded by steep cliffs, constantly subject to erosion by rain and wind. Most of the park is in the upper basin of the Do Sono River, including the Novo, Soninho and Do Sono rivers. This in turn is part of the Araguaia -

basin.

Environment

The park contains dry and wet grassland, ''campo sujo'', strict cerrado, sparse dune vegetation,

cerradão Cerradão is a type of dry forest found in Brazil, associated with the cerrado savanna ecoregion. Structure Cerradão is a drought-resistant ("xerophitic") type of forest, with relatively sparse and slender trees. It includes species that are fou ...

, gallery forest, riparian forest and semi-deciduous lacustrine vegetation. Rare species include '' Annona coriacea'', '' Attalea eichleri'', '' Chamaecrista oligosperma'', '' Ditassa acerosa'', '' Guettarda vibournoidese'' and ''

Xylopia aromatica ''Xylopia aromatica'' is a species of flowering plant in the Annonaceae family. It is a tree native to the tropical Americas, ranging from Honduras to Paraguay and southern Brazil, including Cuba. It grows in the Cerrado grasslands, particularly ...

''. Economically useful plants include '' Syngonanthus nitens'', ''

Mauritia flexuosa ''Mauritia flexuosa'', known as the moriche palm, ''ité'' palm, ''ita'', ''buriti'', ''muriti'', ''miriti'' (Brazil), ''canangucho'' (Colombia), ''morete or acho'' (Ecuador), ''palma real'' (Bolivia), or ''aguaje'' (Peru), is a Arecaceae, palm t ...

'', ''

Anacardium occidentale Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree ''Anacardium occidentale'', in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tal ...

'', ''

Anadenanthera colubrina ''Anadenanthera colubrina'' (also known as vilca, huilco, huilca, wilco, willka, curupay, curupau, cebil, or angico) is a South American tree closely related to yopo, or ''Anadenanthera peregrina''. It grows to tall and the trunk is very thorn ...

'', '' Annona coriacea'', '' Astronium fraxinifolium'', ''

Brosimum gaudichaudii ''Brosimum'' is a genus of plants in the family Moraceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. The breadnut ('' B. alicastrum'') was used by the Maya civilization for its edible nut. The dense vividly colored scarlet wood of '' B. paraens ...

'', '' Dalbergia miscolobium'', '' Eugenia dysenterica'', '' Hancornia speciosa'', '' Pterodon pubescens'' and '' Stryphnodendron adstringens''. The '' Acosmium subelegans'', '' Andira cordata'' and '' Parkia platycephala'' are endemic. The

hoary fox The hoary fox or hoary zorro (''Lycalopex vetulus''), also known as ''raposinha-do-campo'' in Brazil ( Portuguese for "little fox of the meadow"), is a species of zorro or "false" fox endemic to Brazil. Unlike many other foxes, it feeds primaril ...

(''Lycalopex vetulus'') is endemic. The rare and endangered

Brazilian merganser The Brazilian merganser (''Mergus octosetaceus'') is a South American diving duck in the ''Mergus'' genus. It is one of the most threatened waterfowl species in the world, with possibly fewer than 250 birds in the wild and a small number kept ...

(''Mergus octosetaceus'') and Chaco eagle (''Buteogallus coronatus'') are found in the park.

Administration

The Jalapão State Park was created by state Law 1203 of 12 January 2001. The park is part of the Jalapão ecological corridor, The Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, one of the core areas of the Cerrado Biosphere Reserve, is also part of this corridor. On 21 July 2009 a technical cooperative agreement was signed between the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation ( Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is a government agency under the administration of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment. It is nam ...

(ICMBio) and the Nature Institute of Tocantins for management and conservation of the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station and the Jalapão State Park. The state park's advisory board was appointed on 15 December 2011.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jalapao Protected areas of Tocantins Parks in Brazil State parks of Brazil Protected areas established in 2001 2001 establishments in Brazil Cerrado