Chapada dos Veadeiros is one of the ten most visited National Parks in Brazil, but it is at risk from neighbouring ranches, forest fires, pollution from mining and the encroaching road network.

Travelling towards the park we came across a large area of land that had been burnt.

Sergio Collaco de Carvalho, from ICMBio, who works at the National Park explained what had happened.

Listen to Sergio

With stunning scenery, breathtaking waterfalls and rapids, around 30,000 visitors make their way to the park each year.

The increased number of visitors is stretching the park service to the limit. But dealing with visitors is only one side of the job as many of the threats to the park come from neighbouring farmers.

Fernando Habel, from ICMBio works with farmers in the region.

He told me about what he does.

Listen to Fernando

It’s not just fining farmers but also trying to change the way they farm to work better with nature.

Listen to Fernando

Chapada dos Veadeiros is home to a series of species threatened by extinction, such as pampa deer, swamp deer, jaguars, guará wolves, rheas, crested seriemas, tapitis (small hare-like rodents), giant armadillos, great anteaters, capybaras, tapirs, red-breasted toucans, king vultures and black vultures.

The park contains a high faunal diversity with an estimated 70 species of mammals, 306 birds, 53 amphibians and reptiles and 49 fishes. There is a high diversity of invertebrates, with more than 1,000 species of moths and 160 bees, among many other groups. It is located on an ancient plateau with an estimated age of 1.8 billion years, and is based in the Brazilian state of Goias.

With the Football World Cup coming in 2014, the park’s management are planning some big improvements.

Leonardo Schumm joined CVNP as Park Manager in May and he has some big plans to attract those World Cup tourists.

Listen to Leonardo

With its World Heritage Natural Site Status secured for nine years, Leonardo was keen to point out the importance of this

Listen to Leonardo