Altamiro de Moura Pacheco

Altamiro de Moura Pacheco State Park protects a remnant of cerrado and gallery forest on the outskirts of metropolitan Goiânia, spanning approximately 3,185 hectares in the municipalities of Nerópolis, Goianápolis, and Terezópolis de Goiás. Established in 1997, the park safeguards the headwaters of important tributaries of the João Leite River, which supplies drinking water to the state capital. The reserve is one of the closest protected cerrado fragments to a major Brazilian city and is named after a former state environmental director. Its proximity to Goiânia makes it an important ecological buffer and environmental education destination for a rapidly urbanizing region of central Brazil.

The park harbors a diverse assemblage of cerrado and gallery-forest fauna, including maned wolf, giant anteater, southern tamandua, crab-eating fox, and several armadillo species. Marmosets and capuchin monkeys inhabit the denser gallery forests along streams, while six-banded armadillos and pampas deer use the open savanna. Over 200 bird species have been recorded, including red-legged seriemas, toco toucans, burrowing owls, king vultures, and the threatened white-banded tanager. Reptiles include boa constrictors, caimans in stream pools, and numerous lizard species. The park also provides refuge for several declining amphibians tied to cerrado seasonal wetlands and acts as a genetic corridor connecting isolated cerrado fragments around Goiânia.

The vegetation is a mosaic of cerrado physiognomies typical of the Central Brazilian Plateau, including cerrado sensu stricto, cerradão (woodland cerrado), campo sujo (dirty grassland), and extensive gallery forests along the Caçu, João Leite, and Barreiro streams. Characteristic trees include pequi (Caryocar brasiliense), lobeira, sucupira, ipê-amarelo, jatobá, copaíba, and the twisted-branched pau-terra. The gallery forests shelter taller emergents such as jequitibá, embaúba, and wild figs, alongside epiphytic orchids and bromeliads. Herbaceous flora includes native grasses, vellozias, and fire-adapted geophytes that resprout after seasonal dry-season burns, creating bursts of wildflowers at the onset of the rainy season.

The park sits on the Central Brazilian Plateau (Planalto Central) within the Brasília Fold Belt, where weathered Precambrian rocks of the Araxá Group underlie thick lateritic soils. Surface geology is dominated by deep red-yellow latosols and cambisols that formed over schists, quartzites, and phyllites exposed in stream valleys. These oxisols are heavily leached, acidic, and aluminum-rich, conditions that strongly shape the cerrado vegetation. Gentle undulating relief between 800 and 1,100 meters elevation is dissected by narrow valleys that feed the João Leite reservoir. Occasional quartzite outcrops and iron-rich concretions (canga) mark higher ground, while sandy alluvial deposits line the stream channels.

The park experiences a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) with two distinct seasons: a warm wet season from October through April and a pronounced dry season from May to September. Annual rainfall averages around 1,500 millimeters, concentrated in the summer months when afternoon thunderstorms are common. Temperatures remain relatively warm year-round, with monthly averages between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius, though dry-season nights can dip below 10 degrees Celsius during cold fronts from the south. Relative humidity drops sharply in August and September, often below 30 percent, elevating fire risk. This seasonal rhythm drives cerrado phenology and regulates stream flow into the João Leite watershed.

The lands now protected by the park lie within the ancestral territory of Jê-speaking peoples, including the Xavante and Karajá, who used cerrado environments for hunting, gathering pequi and baru nuts, and seasonal burning that maintained open grasslands. Portuguese bandeirantes entered the region in the eighteenth century during the Goiás gold rush, leading to the founding of nearby Vila Boa and the eventual displacement of Indigenous groups. From the nineteenth century onward, cattle ranching and subsistence farming dominated the landscape. Rapid expansion of Goiânia after its founding in 1933 brought highways, industrial agriculture, and suburban growth that fragmented the cerrado, prompting late-twentieth-century calls to preserve the remaining forested watersheds near the capital.

Altamiro de Moura Pacheco State Park was created by state decree in 1997 to protect the headwaters feeding the future João Leite reservoir, which began supplying water to Goiânia in 2015. The park is named in honor of Altamiro de Moura Pacheco, a prominent state environmental administrator who championed cerrado conservation in Goiás. Management falls under the state environmental agency, currently SEMAD (Secretaria de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável). Early years focused on land regularization and boundary demarcation, as portions of the park overlapped with private cattle ranches. Since the reservoir went online, management priorities have emphasized watershed protection, fire prevention, and controlling invasive African grasses that fuel dry-season wildfires.

The park's main attractions center on its gallery-forest streams, cerrado vistas, and the João Leite reservoir, visible from several overlooks along the park's eastern boundary. Short interpretive trails wind through cerradão and gallery forest, offering opportunities to see ancient pequi trees, flowering ipês, and birdlife such as seriemas and toco toucans. A visitor reception area near the Nerópolis entrance provides orientation and environmental education programs aimed at school groups from Goiânia. The reservoir edge is particularly scenic at sunset, and birdwatchers visit the transition zones between open cerrado and forest for endemic tanagers and woodcreepers. Visitation is kept low to reduce disturbance to wildlife and water quality.

The park lies roughly 30 kilometers northeast of Goiânia and can be reached via BR-153 and municipal roads through Nerópolis or Terezópolis de Goiás. Facilities are modest and oriented toward environmental education rather than mass tourism, including a visitor center, restrooms, and picnic areas near the main entrance. Access is generally restricted to scheduled visits, school groups, and researchers, and visitors should contact SEMAD in advance for authorization. There is no lodging inside the park, but Goiânia offers a full range of accommodations. Visitors should bring water, sun protection, and insect repellent, especially during the wet season when trails may become muddy and mosquitoes are abundant.

Conservation priorities focus on protecting the João Leite reservoir's water quality by maintaining gallery forests, stabilizing stream banks, and regulating land use within the park's buffer zone. Ongoing challenges include invasive African grasses such as Brachiaria and Melinis minutiflora, which outcompete native species and intensify dry-season wildfires. State fire brigades conduct prescribed burns and maintain firebreaks to reduce catastrophic fire risk. Reforestation projects restore degraded pasture within former ranch inholdings, while partnerships with Goiás State University support biodiversity monitoring and seedling propagation. Environmental education outreach to nearby schools aims to build local stewardship of the cerrado, recognized as one of the world's most threatened biodiversity hotspots.