Chapada dos Veadeiros

Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park was created in 1961 in the north-east of the state of Goiás, on the Brazilian central plateau. It protects a sector of the Cerrado, the tropical savannah that covers much of the Brazilian interior and that is reckoned one of the oldest and most diverse tropical ecosystems in the world, as well as one of the most threatened by the advance of agriculture.

Geologically, the chapada forms part of the South American planation surface, the oldest in the region, and its dominant bedrock is metamorphic rock of the Traíras Group, quartzites of marine sedimentary origin with cross-bedding and tidal ripple marks interbedded with metasiltstones. The resulting relief is highly varied: plateaux, chapadas, tablelands, planation surfaces, inselbergs and range escarpments, cut through by clear-water rivers that form canyons, falls and natural pools.

The vegetation is the typical Cerrado mosaic, with campo limpo, campo rupestre on the quartzite outcrops, buriti palm veredas in the damp hollows and gallery forest along the rivers, with a high degree of plant endemism. The fauna includes emblematic and threatened species of the South American savannah, such as the maned wolf, the giant anteater and the giant armadillo. In December 2001 UNESCO inscribed the park on the World Heritage List alongside Emas National Park, as a serial natural property representing the Cerrado. In June 2017 a decree extended the park to some 240,000 hectares, taking in habitat for a further 17 plant and 32 animal species.