The Forno Grande State Park (Portuguese: Parque Estadual do Forno Grande) is a state park in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. It protects an area of Atlantic Forest and the second highest peak in the state.
| Forno Grande State Park | |
|---|---|
| Parque Estadual do Forno Grande | |
 Estrela do Norte with Forno Grande in the background | |
  | |
| Nearest city | Castelo, Espírito Santo |
| Coordinates | 20°31′13″S 41°06′11″W / 20.520401°S 41.103060°W |
| Area | 730 metres (2,400 ft) |
| Designation | State park |
| Created | 1998 |
| Administrator | Instituto Estadual do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos (IEMA) |
Location
editThe Forno Grande State Park is in the municipality of Castelo, Espírito Santo. It has an area of 730 hectares (1,800 acres).[1] It protects the second highest peak in the state of Espírito Santo, the 2,039 metres (6,690 ft) Forno Grande Peak. It contains trails and waterfalls. The area includes a large cloud forest at the top of the peak. It is home to endangered species such as the cougar (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and southern muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides).[2]
The park includes a visitor center with the Onça Pintada (Cougar) museum, and is open daily from 8:00 to 17:30. The visitor center has restrooms, drinking fountains and collections of fauna and flora. There is also a small accommodation for researchers with beds, mattresses, kitchen and bathroom. Camping is not allowed, and there is no restaurant in the park, but there are facilities nearby.[2] The park gets about 200 visitors per month.[3]
History
editThe Forno Grande State Park was created on 31 October 1960 as a forest reserve. In 1998 law 7.528 converted it to a state park with the objectives of conserving fauna and flora.[1] It became part of the Central Atlantic Forest Ecological Corridor, created in 2002.[4] It has been administered by the State Institute of the Environment and Water Resources (IEMA) since September 2007.[1] The park was closed to visitors indefinitely in September 2016 for safety reasons, to avoid fires after a long period of drought in which the two springs had dried up.[3]
Notes
editSources
edit- Caliman, Beatriz (16 September 2016), "Parque Forno Grande em Castelo será fechado por tempo indeterminado", Gazeta Online (in Portuguese), retrieved 2016-10-25
- "Forno Grande", Descubra Castelo (in Portuguese), retrieved 2016-10-25
- Lamas, Ivana Reis; Crepaldi, Maria Otávia; Mesquita, Carlos Alberto Bernardo (2015), Uma Rede no Corredor (PDF) (in Portuguese), Conservação Internacional (CI-Brasil), ISBN 978-85-98830-28-5, retrieved 2016-10-22
- Parque Estadual do Forno Grande (in Portuguese), Castelo, archived from the original on 2016-10-25, retrieved 2016-10-25