Araguaia National Park, Nature reserve on Bananal Island, Brazil.
Araguaia National Park covers the northern third of Bananal Island, a river island in the Araguaia River in Tocantins, Brazil. The park spans 562,312 hectares of flat land at 200–240 m above sea level, where Amazon forest meets Cerrado savanna and Pantanal wetlands. Its vegetation mixes savanna grassland, scrub and deciduous forest, with piassava and buriti palms in frequently flooded areas.
Created on 31 December 1959 by federal decree under President Juscelino Kubitschek, the park originally covered the whole of Bananal Island, about 2 million hectares. A 1973 decree by Emílio Garrastazu Médici cut it to the northern third, leaving the rest as an indigenous park; a 1980 decree set the present 562,312 hectares. In 2006 the Inãwébohona indigenous land of the Karajá and Javaé was ratified, placing two-thirds of the park under dual jurisdiction.
The island's centre and south form a 13,584 km² cultural preserve for the Karajá and Javaé peoples, enacted on 19 December 1973 by Article 28 of Indian Law No. 6001. A 2006 decree homologated the Inãwébohona Indigenous Land, placing two-thirds of the park under a dual-affectation regime. Karajá craftwork is known for its ceramic dolls.
The park occupies the northern third of Bananal Island, in the municipalities of Pium and Lagoa da Confusão, and is managed by ICMBio through its office in Pium. The land is flat, at 200 to 240 m above sea level, and the Araguaia River floods periodically. Rain falls mostly from November to March, and September and October are the hottest months.
The park's rivers shelter Amazon river dolphins and smaller tucuxi dolphins, and its wetlands hold anacondas, spectacled and black caiman and the South American river turtle. Birdwatchers can look for the hoatzin, the Orinoco goose and Spix's macaw among the flooded palm stands.
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