Mato Grosso ecosystems
Mato Grosso is one of the largest states of Brazil, located in the western part of the country. This Brazilian state contains three main ecosystems: the Cerrado, the Pantanal and the Amazon rainforest.
Pantanal Conservation area
The Pantanal is a natural region of 140,000-195,000 square kilometres located in two Brazilian states (Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso) with portions in Bolivia and Paraguay. This ecosystem was listed by UNESCO as a Natural World Heritage Site in 2000 as it is the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
Roughly 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons (1,320 mm/year), nurturing a biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping to support a dense array of animal species.
Flora
The vegetation of the Pantanal, often referred to as the “Pantanal complex”, is a mixture of plant communities typical of a variety of surrounding biome regions: these include moist tropical Amazonian rainforest plants, semiarid woodland plants typical of northeast Brazil, Brazilian cerrado savanna plants and plants of the Chaco savannas of Bolivia and Paraguay. Approximately 2,000 different plants have been identified in the Pantanal biome, with some presenting significant medicinal promise.
Fauna
The Pantanal ecosystem is also home to 463 bird species, 269 fish species, more than 236 mammalian species, 141 reptile and amphibian species, and over 9,000 subspecies of invertebrates. Among the rarest animals to inhabit the wetland of the Pantanal are the marsh deer and the giant river otter. Parts of the Pantanal are also home to the following endangered or threatened species: the hyacinth macaw bird, the crowned solitary eagle, the maned wolf, the bush dog, the South American tapir, and the giant anteater.
Chapada dos Guimarães National Park
The Chapada dos Guimarães National Park in Mato Grosso is a unique environment of 33 square kilometres of sandstone mountains with dramatic cliffs and waterfalls. It is the state main touristic attraction as it is a beautiful ecological site with dozens of cascades, mountain peeks, caves and trails in the Cerrado vegetation, known as the Brazilian savanna. The Chapada dos Guimarães National Park was established in 1989 with the purpose to protect the local ecosystems and to ensure the preservation of natural and archaeological sites, while supporting appropriate use for visiting, education and research.
