Parque Nacional e Histórico do Monte Pascoal

Prado, Bahia

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Description

Parque Nacional e Histórico do Monte Pascoal covers the first piece of Brazilian land sighted by the Portuguese navigators, which makes it a landmark in the nation's history. Because the region was occupied in the first decades of Portuguese colonization, and bears witness to the Indigenous peoples who were present there and remain to this day, it is the first and only national and historical park in Brazil. It is part of the Costa do Descobrimento UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site and has a natural area with a diversity of landscapes and unique scenic beauty, including beaches with crystal-clear waters, restinga (coastal sandy-plain) vegetation, mangroves, river beaches on the Caraíva and Corumbau rivers, the Mussununga grasslands, which exist only in this region, and an important portion of the magnificent Atlantic Forest in the far south of Bahia. Because Indigenous people of the Pataxó ethnic group have been present in the area since before the decree that created it, Parque Nacional e Histórico do Monte Pascoal overlaps with the Terra Indígena Barra Velha, which is why the territory is co-managed.