Serra Geral National Park, National park in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Brazil
Serra Geral National Park is a 17,302-hectare protected area in the Atlantic Forest biome, split into two separate sections next to Aparados da Serra National Park. It spans the municipalities of Cambará do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul and Jacinto Machado and Praia Grande in Santa Catarina. Its terrain runs from the gently undulating Campos Gerais plateau at 900–1,200 m down the escarpment to the coastal plain at 100 m.
The park was established in 1992 by government decree and created as an adjacent conservation zone to an existing protected area, both sharing the same mountain range. This dual designation reflected growing recognition of the need to safeguard these threatened ecosystems.
The park lies in the Mata Atlântica biome on the escarpment where the Campos Gerais plateau drops to the coastal plain, and its name comes from the Serra Geral range that carries this cliff line. The protected area is split into two separate sections, both adjoining Aparados da Serra National Park, and it is managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation as an IUCN category II area used for research, environmental education and ecotourism.
The park has two separate sections next to Aparados da Serra National Park, split between Cambará do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul and Jacinto Machado and Praia Grande in Santa Catarina. Terrain runs from the 900–1,200 m Campos Gerais plateau down the escarpment to 100 m on the coastal plain, so plan routes by section and elevation. Rainfall averages 1,800 mm a year and temperatures swing from 0 to 36 °C.
The park hosts rare amphibian and bird species found nowhere else in the world, living within different forest types ranging from cloud forests to peat fields. These species depend on the specific conditions of these high-altitude zones.
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