Location: Bahia State Map
Area: 1,520 km²
Chapada Diamantina National Park is a protected biosphere in Bahia State in Brazil. It covers an area of 1,520 km².
Chapada Diamantina is a region of mountains, protected in the
category of national park, located in the center of the Brazilian
state of Bahia, where almost all the rivers of the Paraguaçu,
Jacuípe and Rio de Contas basins are born. These streams of water
spring up into the ridges and slide across the relief in beautiful
streams, plummet into bubbling waterfalls and form transparent
natural pools. The national park is managed by the Chico Mendes
Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).
In the
region are located the highest altitudes of the Northeast of Brazil:
Pico do Barbado, with 2033 meters, Pico do Itobira and Pico das
Almas. The geographical formation is part of the set of mountains
and plateaus of the East and Southeast of the Brazilian relief and
constitutes an extension of the Serra do Espinhaço, so it is a
crystalline shield formed in the Precambrian.
The vegetation
is exuberant, composed of species of the semi-arid caatinga and
mountainous flora, with emphasis on bromeliads, orchids and
evergreens. Its estimated total population in 2014 was 395,620
inhabitants. Being Seabra, Morro do Chapéu and Iraquara the three
most populous cities, according to IBGE data.
Chapada
Diamantina is made up of 24 municipalities: Abaíra (together with
its Catolés district and its Ouro Verde settlement), Andaraí, Barra
da Estiva, Ibitiara, Iramaia, Itaetê, Marcionílio Souza, Morro do
Chapéu, Novo Horizonte, Palmeiras, Rio de Accounts and its districts
Arapiranga and Marcolino Moura, Seabra, Souto Soares, Tapiramutá,
Utinga, Wagner, Boninal, Bonito, Ibicoara and its district Cascavel,
Iraquara and its district Iraporanga, Jussiape and its district
Caraguataí, Lençóis, Mucugê, Nova Redenção and Piatã and its
districts Cabrália and Inúbia.
Chapada Diamantina is a
41,751-square-kilometer cliff-bound plateau located in central
Bahia. The Chapada Diamantina rocks are part of the geological unit
known as Espinhaço Supergroup, which took its name because it occurs
in the Espinhaço mountain range, in the state of Minas Gerais. It is
generally presented as an extensive highland, with an average
altitude between 800 and 1,200m above sea level.
The highest
mountains in the Brazilian northeast are in Chapada Diamantina: the
2,033-meter Pico do Barbado, the 1,970-meter Pico do Itobira and the
1,958-meter Pico das Almas. The mountains that make up the Chapada
Diamantina are the watersheds between the São Francisco river basin
(S. Onofre, Paramirim rivers) and the rivers that flow directly into
the Atlantic Ocean, such as the Contas River and the Paraguaçu
River.
The park is located in Serra do Sincorá, in the east
of the plateau, an area of heavily eroded structures. The mountain
range extends north-south and has an average width of 25 kilometers.
Gold and diamonds were found in the mountain range.
Moist air
currents moving westward from the sea make precipitation levels
higher, especially in the east. There are many cave systems formed
by the rivers of the region. The 24-kilometer Lapa Doce Cave is the
fifth largest cave in Brazil. Some caves feature rock paintings that
are still poorly studied.
Formation
Chapada Diamantina was
not always an imposing chain of saws. About 1 billion and 700
million years ago, the formation of the Espinhaço sedimentary basin
began, from a series of extensive depressions that were filled with
materials expelled from volcanoes, windblown sands and gravels
falling from its edges. On these depressions sediments were
deposited in a basin-shaped region, influenced by rivers, winds and
seas. Subsequently, a phenomenon called uplift occurred, which
raised the sediment layers above sea level, under pressure from the
epirogenetic force, and slowly eroded over millions of years.
The numerous layers of sandstones, conglomerates, and
limestones, today exposed in the Chapada Diamantina, represent the
primitive sedimentary deposits; The current landscape is the product
of the activities of these agents over geological time. In the
streets and sidewalks of the cities of Chapada, slabs of undulating
surfaces reveal the action of winds and waters that passed over
ancient sands.
Fauna
There are few large mammals, but many
species of small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and insects.
The protection of birds in the reserve include the little hawk-dove
(Buteogallus lacernulatus), the gray eagle (Buteogallus coronatus),
the Bahian butterfly (Phylloscartes beckeri), the Great Tiribara
(Pyrrhura cruentata) and the Brazilian john (Synallaxis whitneyi).
Other protected species include the large-bellied (Callicebus
barbarabrownae), puma (Puma concolor), jaguar (Panthera onca),
guinea fowl (Leopardus tigrinus), armadillo (Priodontes maximus) and
giant anteater (Myrmecophaga). tridactyla).
Flora
Vegetation Typical caatinga plants, such as xerophytes at altitudes
of about 500 to 900 meters, Atlantic Forest vegetation along the
watercourses, as well as meadows and rupestrian fields above.
Endemic flora include Adamantinia miltonioides, Cattleya elongata,
Cattleya tenuis, Cattleya x tenuata, Cleites libonni and Cleistes
metallina. The Hummingbird Augastes lumachellus is endemic.
National park
The
national park was created on September 16, 1985 through a federal
decree, with an area of 152 thousand hectares in the Chapada
Diamantina region, distributed by the municipalities of Andaraí,
Ibicoara, Iramaia, Itaetê, Lençóis, Mucugê and Palmeiras. It is
administered by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity
Conservation (ICMBio) and is located between the geographic
coordinates 41º35'-41º15 'of West Longitude and 12º25'-13º20' of
south latitude.
Conscious eco-tourism gives Chapada the best
features of a nature-preserving leisure hub. Access is by multiple
entries without accurate visit records. Still, ICMBio states that
the Cachoeira da Fumaça and the Aleixo Trail, where there is access
control, exceed 25,000 and 15,000 annual visitors, respectively.
Also noteworthy is the visitation through the Pati Trail and towards
Cachoeira do Sossego.
The park is classified as a protected
area category II (national park) of IUCN and aims to preserve
natural ecosystems of great ecological relevance and scenic beauty,
enabling scientific research, environmental education, outdoor
leisure and ecotourism. The main problems of park management are
forest fires, land regularization and visitor control, as they
endanger Salvador's biological diversity, tourist attraction and
water supply through the Paraguaçu River.