Parque Estadual Serra do Mar - Núcleo Itariru

Located in the southern part of the state of São Paulo, it covers a total area of 53,927 hectares of preserved Atlantic Forest with its rich biodiversity of fauna and flora. It contains many bodies of water, some of which are tributaries of the main rivers that make up the Rio Ribeira de Iguape basin, and it also holds the only patches of várzea (floodplain) forest in the entire state of São Paulo. Várzea forests are fragile environments whose origin and functioning are linked to the deposition of geologically recent sediments; they are characterized by the constant flow of the rivers, that is, by water flowing in and out with the river tides. These same conditions led to the formation of soils with good levels of nutrients and biological stocks. They are most concentrated along the banks of muddy rivers.