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Serra do Curral

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki

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Serra do Curral
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Highest point
PeakPico Belo Horizonte (Belo Horizonte)
Elevation1,390 m (4,560 ft) [1]
Coordinates19°57′39″S 43°54′35″W / 19.96083°S 43.90972°W / -19.96083; -43.90972Coordinates: 19°57′39″S 43°54′35″W / 19.96083°S 43.90972°W / -19.96083; -43.90972
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Dimensions
Length100 km (62 mi) ESE-WSW
Naming
EtymologyFrom the old Arraial do Curral del Rei
Geography
CountryBrazil
StateMinas Gerais
RegionIron Quadrangle
Main municipalities
Parent rangeEspinhaço Mountains
BiomeCerrado-Atlantic Forest transition
Geology
Age of rockMainly Paleoproterozoic
Mountain typeHogback, overturned homocline
Type of rockMinas Supergroup, mainly itabirite of the Cauê Formation

Serra do Curral is a mountain range and ridge alignment in Minas Gerais, Brazil, best known for the ridge along the southern edge of Belo Horizonte. In local use, the name usually refers to the section along Belo Horizonte and northern Nova Lima. In regional geology and geomorphology, it can also mean a larger structure about 100 km (62 mi) long on the northern edge of the Iron Quadrangle.[lower-alpha 1][2] The range belongs to the southern part of the Espinhaço Mountains and reaches 1,390 m (4,560 ft) at Pico Belo Horizonte,[lower-alpha 2] the highest point of the ridge in the city.[1][3]

The range is built on ancient rocks of the Minas Supergroup,[lower-alpha 3] including iron-rich itabirite[lower-alpha 4] of the Cauê Formation,[lower-alpha 5] phyllites, dolomitic rocks and quartzitic rocks.[4][5] Weathering of these rocks produced ferruginous crusts known as canga,[lower-alpha 6] shallow iron-rich soils and specialized rocky-field habitats.

Springs and streams descending from Serra do Curral helped shape the site of the old Curral del Rei settlement and later supplied parts of the early water system of Belo Horizonte.[6][7]

Serra do Curral lies in a transition between the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest. Its crest and upper slopes contain ferruginous campos rupestres,[lower-alpha 7] while lower and moister areas include Cerrado formations, gallery forests[lower-alpha 8] and Atlantic Forest remnants.[8][9] Botanists recorded 163 vascular plant[lower-alpha 9] species in 129 genera and 51 families, including threatened or locally restricted plants associated with canga habitats.[5] The fauna is best documented in protected areas such as Parque da Serra do Curral, Parque das Mangabeiras and Parque Municipal Mata das Borboletas, where birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects live among rocky slopes, wooded valleys, springs and urban forest fragments.[8][9]

The name of the range comes from the old Arraial do Curral del Rei,[lower-alpha 10] the rural settlement that gave way to Belo Horizonte in the late 19th century.[2][10] Since the construction of the planned capital, Serra do Curral has shaped the city's skyline, waterworks, urban growth and civic identity. It supplied stone, limestone and timber for the construction of the planned capital, later became a source of industrial iron mining, and became a focus of conflicts over real-estate development, environmental protection and the preservation of the skyline.[11][12][13]

IPHAN[lower-alpha 11] federally listed part of Serra do Curral in 1960 for its scenic value. Parts of the range also have municipal and state heritage protection, parks and ecological corridors.[14][15][16] In 1995, it was chosen as a symbol of Belo Horizonte in a municipal plebiscite,[lower-alpha 12] and Pico Belo Horizonte is shown in the city's coat of arms.[1][14] The range remains a major visual landmark and public recreation area, with viewpoints, trails and parks including Praça Israel Pinheiro,[lower-alpha 13] Parque das Mangabeiras and Parque da Serra do Curral.[17][18]

Origin of the name

The name of Serra do Curral comes from the old Arraial do Curral del Rei, the settlement that developed at the foot of the range and later gave way to Belo Horizonte.[2] The old settlement name remained in administrative use as Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem do Curral del Rey,[lower-alpha 14] a district created by royal order in 1750. In 1890, the district was renamed Belo Horizonte. It later became the site chosen for the new capital of Minas Gerais, inaugurated in 1897.[10]

The name also keeps a link to the older rural area that existed before the planned capital. The Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto, housed in the former farmhouse of Fazenda do Leitão,[lower-alpha 15] keeps physical remains of the former Arraial do Curral del Rei and of the farms, streams and everyday life that preceded the new city.[19] Serra do Curral keeps part of the old name of the arraial that developed at its base.[2]

Geography

Inaugural celebration of the new capital in 1897, from the collection of the Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto.

Serra do Curral is a mountain alignment on the northern edge of the Iron Quadrangle, one of the main iron-bearing regions of Brazil.[4][5] At the broader scale, it belongs to the Espinhaço Mountains, Brazil's largest and most continuous Precambrian orogenic belt, which extends from the Belo Horizonte region toward northern Bahia.[3]

Extent and local names

The name Serra do Curral has more than one meaning. In regional geology and geomorphology, Serra do Curral refers to a larger ridge structure about 100 km (62 mi) long, with an east-southeast to west-southwest orientation, forming the northern boundary of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero.[2] Within the Belo Horizonte area, Serra do Curral more often means the section on the southern edge of Belo Horizonte and northern Nova Lima.[2]

Along the wider structure, different stretches have local names. From southwest to northeast, the sequence is Serra Azul, from the southwestern end to Pico do Itatiaiuçu. Serra do Itatiaia lies between Pico do Itatiaiuçu and Garganta da Conquistinha. Serra das Farofas, also known as Fecho do Funil, lies between Garganta da Conquistinha and the Paraopeba River gorge. Serra dos Três Irmãos lies between Fecho do Funil and Pico dos Três Irmãos. Serra do Rola Moça lies between Pico dos Três Irmãos and the area cut by BR-040.[lower-alpha 16] Serra do Curral, in Belo Horizonte and Nova Lima, lies between BR-040 and Pico Belo Horizonte. Serra do Taquaril lies between Pico Belo Horizonte and the Rio das Velhas valley. Serra da Piedade lies between the Rio das Velhas valley and the northeastern end of the range.[2]

Serra da Piedade lies at the northeastern end of the larger Serra do Curral structure. It lies on the boundary of Sabará and Caeté, about 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Belo Horizonte, and marks its eastern end at the northern border of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero.[20]

The section most closely associated with Belo Horizonte forms the southern edge of the city. Its crest commonly reaches between 1,100 and 1,350 m (3,610 and 4,430 ft), and Pico Belo Horizonte rises to 1,390 m (4,560 ft), the highest point of the range in the city and a feature used in the city's coat of arms.[1] Its relief has a hogback form,[lower-alpha 17] with a steeper northern face toward Belo Horizonte and a gentler southern face toward Nova Lima. This shape comes from differential erosion, in which harder and softer rocks wear away at different speeds.[5]

The range also shaped the old hydrology of the city. The settlement of Curral del Rei, later replaced by Belo Horizonte, stood in the Rio das Velhas basin near the contact with Serra do Curral. Streams including Córrego da Serra,[lower-alpha 18] Córrego Acaba Mundo and Córrego do Leitão had their headwaters on the range and flowed toward Ribeirão Arrudas, the main watercourse of the old settlement area.[6]

The range is also an ecological boundary within the city. More open vegetation appears near the crest, while forest formations become more common on lower and moister slopes. This pattern comes from the contact between rocky ferruginous substrates, Cerrado vegetation and Atlantic Forest remnants.[5][8]

Geology

Rocky outcrop on Serra do Curral.

Serra do Curral forms part of the northern edge of the Iron Quadrangle, one of Brazil's main Precambrian geological provinces. The region is made up of older Archean granite-gneiss terrains and greenstone belts,[lower-alpha 19] together with a Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary sequence of the Minas Supergroup.[lower-alpha 20] The iron formations of the Minas Supergroup are among the main geological features of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero.[4][20]

Geologically, Serra do Curral is often classified as an overturned homocline[lower-alpha 21] of the Minas Supergroup. Its ridge is sustained mainly by itabirites of the Cauê Formation, while other parts of the sequence include phyllites, dolomitic rocks and quartzitic rocks.[5][20]

The Cauê Formation is the dominant geological unit on the crest and upper slope. It consists mainly of itabirite, a metamorphosed banded iron formation made of alternating iron-rich and silica-rich, or iron-rich and carbonate-rich, layers.[lower-alpha 22] In the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, the Cauê Formation was deposited about 2.4 billion years ago, during a period when iron formations accumulated in many parts of the world.[20] The International Union of Geological Sciences includes the Paleoproterozoic banded iron formations of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero among its geological heritage sites, in part because of their link to the early rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere.[21]

On the Belo Horizonte side of the range, the local rock sequence varies down the slope. The upper part is associated with the Cauê Formation and its itabirites. The intermediate slope includes phyllite of the Batatal Formation. Near the base, the Gandarela Formation is marked mainly by dolomite, while the Cercadinho Formation includes quartzitic rocks.[5] The sequence helps explain the shape of the range. More resistant itabirite and ferruginous crusts help preserve the crest, while less resistant rocks on lower parts of the slope weather more easily.[5][20]

Folding and faulting shaped Serra do Curral. In the western segment, the exposed rocks form part of the Piedade Syncline, a fold that verges toward the north-northwest.[lower-alpha 23] Smaller folds overlie that regional structure. The twofold sets trend roughly northeast–southwest and form a complex interference pattern.[22]

These movements shaped more than the visible rock layers. High-angle reverse faults and repeated folding also influenced the distribution of compact, high-grade iron accumulations in the western Serra do Curral. These accumulations occur in Cauê Formation itabirite. Some also form massive veins cutting rocks of the Piracicaba Group.[22] The present ridge reflects ancient sedimentary rocks later folded, tilted and fractured by tectonic movement.

Long exposure to weathering sharpened the contrast between the range's rock types. Iron-rich rocks resisted erosion and remained as ridges, cliffs and rocky crests. Dolomitic and phyllitic rocks were more easily broken down, helping form lower slopes and benches. Over the itabirite, weathering produced canga, a hard ferruginous crust made from iron-rich fragments cemented by iron oxides and hydroxides.[20] The same geology shaped the modern relief of Serra do Curral and influenced its springs, soils and rocky-field vegetation.

Soils, minerals and metals

View of Belo Horizonte from the Serra do Curral area.

The soils and exposed surface materials of Serra do Curral come mainly from weathered iron-rich bedrock. On the crest and upper slopes, this process produced shallow, rocky and ferruginous substrates, including canga, a hard ironstone crust common in the Iron Quadrangle. These substrates help support ferruginous campos rupestres, where plants grow in thin soil pockets, rock crevices and exposed canga surfaces.[5]

Iron is the dominant metal in the range's best-known surface materials. It occurs mainly in iron oxides such as hematite and in weathering products rich in iron oxides and hydroxides. In the western segment of Serra do Curral, high-grade iron accumulations include martite, hematite and specular hematite,[lower-alpha 24] hosted either in Cauê Formation itabirite or in massive veins cutting rocks of the Piracicaba Group.[22] The iron-rich bodies are not chemically uniform. Material studied in the western Serra do Curral had low contents of rare earth elements[lower-alpha 25] and yttrium, while one group had accessory monazite associated with iron oxides.[22]

Soils over canga and itabirite are usually shallow, rocky and rich in iron. Ferruginous soils in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero include red, clayey soils with high iron-oxide content, high organic carbon and many ferruginous concretions in the coarse fraction.[23]

These soils create demanding conditions for plants.[lower-alpha 26] Ferruginous canga areas may have low nutrient availability, high exposure, limited water retention in some microhabitats, and elevated metal concentrations. These conditions favor herbs, shrubs and rupicolous plants adapted to shallow, metal-rich substrates.[5][24] Canga habitats in Brazil also support metallophytes, plants able to tolerate high metal concentrations, including iron and manganese.[25]

Weathering also formed less common mineral assemblages in the range. In the western section of Serra do Curral, rare secondary aluminum-phosphate minerals occur in cavities and fractures in weathered itabirite and iron-rich rock. These include turquoise, augelite and senegalite, with subordinate minerals such as crandallite, gorceixite, florencite and goyazite. They formed as carbonate veins in fractured itabirite weathered over time, releasing phosphorus, aluminum and other elements into local weathering solutions.[26]

Hydrology

Serra do Curral and the Belvedere neighborhood in Belo Horizonte.

Serra do Curral is part of Belo Horizonte's water system. Its slopes contain springs, feed urban streams and sit above important groundwater systems of the Iron Quadrangle. On the Belo Horizonte side, the documented streams linked to the range drain toward Ribeirão Arrudas, in the upper Rio das Velhas basin, which belongs to the larger São Francisco River basin.[27][28]

Belo Horizonte has about 910 km (570 mi) of watercourses, many of them altered, channelized or hidden under the urban fabric. Protected areas at the foot of Serra do Curral keep some of these streams and springs visible. Parque das Mangabeiras, located at the foot of the range, contains about 60 springs that help form the Córrego Mangabeiras and Córrego da Serra, two streams in the Ribeirão Arrudas basin. The park's water features include Recanto da Cascatinha and Lago dos Sonhos, and its main square is named Praça das Águas.[29] Parque das Mangabeiras covers 2,500,000 m2 (250 ha; 620 acres) and has 59 springs of Córrego da Serra.[9]

Córrego Acaba Mundo is the stream most closely tied to the old site of Belo Horizonte. It rises near Serra do Curral, crosses the south-central part of the city and flows toward Ribeirão Arrudas.[30] The old arraial of Curral del Rei occupied part of the stream's slopes near its meeting with the Arrudas, and the stream supplied water and supported small industries in its basin before the construction of the planned capital.[6]

During the early decades of Belo Horizonte, the Acaba Mundo still had a limited role as a water source. Urban growth, pollution and road works later made that use impractical. The stream was gradually channelized and covered, and now runs under several streets and avenues in the city's south-central area.[6][30] Its history shows how Belo Horizonte absorbed many streams into stormwater galleries and road infrastructure.[6]

The early public water system also used water from the Serra do Curral area. Parque Amilcar Vianna Martins, in the Cruzeiro neighborhood, contains a building that preserves the city's first water reservoir, known as Reservatório da Serra. The building was constructed in 1897, the year Belo Horizonte was inaugurated, and contains an underground water tank with a capacity of 2,000,000 L (530,000 US gal). The reservoir remains in operation and supplies the Serra and Anchieta neighborhoods and parts of Cruzeiro, São Lucas and Funcionários.[7] Parque das Mangabeiras also keeps another part of the city's water history. In 1941, the first water treatment station of Belo Horizonte was installed in the area, near the present-day North Gate of the park, and supplied the Serra neighborhood.[9]

Springs on the range are closely tied to geology. Parque das Mangabeiras sits on the northern border of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, on metasedimentary rocks of the Minas Supergroup. Many springs occur along drainage heads and near stream channels, beyond the first visible point of a watercourse. In Mangabeiras, the number and form of springs were linked to relief and rock structure on the northern side of Serra do Curral.[31]

The main regional groundwater system relevant to Serra do Curral is the itabiritic aquifer.[lower-alpha 27] The itabiritic aquifer is the main aquifer system of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero in the southern environmental protection area of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region. It is present in the Homoclinal da Serra do Curral and is formed mainly in rocks of the Cauê Formation, including itabirite and bodies of compact or friable hematite. The system is complex because groundwater moves through fractures, weathered rock, canga, dolomite contacts and layers with different permeability.[32]

At the metropolitan scale, public water supply is no longer centered on the small streams rising on Serra do Curral. In 2026, Copasa served 31 municipalities and more than five million people in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, with about 98% of supply coming from the integrated system.[lower-alpha 28] That system is supported mainly by two basins: the Paraopeba basin, through Rio Manso, Serra Azul and Vargem das Flores, and the Rio das Velhas basin.[33] Earlier ARSAE-MG technical information divided the integrated supply system into the Paraopeba basin, responsible for about 60% of metropolitan supply at the time, and the Rio das Velhas basin, responsible for about 40%.[34] Serra do Curral remains important for local springs, urban drainage, groundwater recharge and neighborhood-scale waterworks. The wider metropolitan system depends on larger river basins and reservoirs.

Water resources on and around Serra do Curral face pressure from urbanization, channelization, pollution, mining and loss of permeable ground. The Ribeirão Arrudas unit is highly urbanized, with water quality harmed by sewage and industrial effluents, even though many springs that feed the system remain clean.[27] Protection of springs and streamside vegetation in parks also supports flood control, biodiversity and groundwater recharge.[29] In the wider Quadrilátero Ferrífero, hydrogeological work has connected mining and urban occupation with lowered groundwater levels, reduced free-flowing discharges, acid drainage and contamination risks.[32]

Fauna

View of Serra do Curral from the Mangabeiras area of Belo Horizonte.

The best-known fauna of Serra do Curral comes from protected areas on the Belo Horizonte side of the range, especially Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral, Parque das Mangabeiras and Parque Municipal Mata das Borboletas. Birds are best documented in the crest park. Mammals, reptiles and amphibians are better documented for Parque das Mangabeiras and nearby urban conservation units. Insects appear in records from butterflies, biological-control work and environmental-education material. Taken together, they show how the range still supports animal life in a dense urban setting.

Birds

Birds are the best-documented animals of Serra do Curral. Nearly 170 bird species are known from protected areas along the Belo Horizonte side of the range. Parque das Mangabeiras, at the foot of the range, has more than 168 species.[9][35] Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral, on the crest, has more than 125 bird species, and avifauna[lower-alpha 29] is the most representative faunal group there.[8]

Species recorded in the crest park include the blue finch (Rhopospina caerulescens), black-chested buzzard-eagle (Geranoaetus melanoleucus), yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima), southern caracara (Caracara plancus), ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum), hepatic tanager (Piranga flava), black-capped antwren (Herpsilochmus atricapillus) and variable antshrike (Thamnophilus caerulescens).[8] In 2012, a birdwatching study found the bat falcon (Falco rufigularis) in the park. The species had not previously been reported in Belo Horizonte.[8]

The bird fauna follows the range's mix of open Cerrado formations, rocky highlands and forested valleys. Open-area and raptor species use the exposed slopes, cliffs and grasslands. Forest birds are more closely tied to the wooded areas of Parque das Mangabeiras and the nearby ecological corridor. Together, these habitats make Serra do Curral an urban refuge for birds in a heavily built part of Belo Horizonte.[8][9]

Parque das Mangabeiras represents the lower, wetter and more wooded part of the range. Jacus and saracuras[lower-alpha 30] are among the birds easily seen there.[9] Parque Municipal Mata das Borboletas, also on the slope of Serra do Curral, adds another small urban fragment to this bird habitat network. Birds there include sabiás (Turdus spp.), the blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina), the southern house wren (Troglodytes musculus), the squirrel cuckoo (Piaya cayana), the bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), the great kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus), swallows, the common waxbill (Estrilda astrild) and black tyrants, with occasional sightings of toucans and jacus at some times of year.[36]

Mammals

About 30 mammal species are known from protected areas along Serra do Curral, with the strongest documentation coming from Parque das Mangabeiras and nearby urban fragments.[9][35] Species found in this part of the range include the South American coati (Nasua nasua), Guianan squirrel (Sciurus aestuans), white-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris), agile gracile opossum (Gracilinanus agilis), gray slender opossum (Marmosops incanus), southeastern four-eyed opossum (Philander frenatus), montane grass mouse (Akodon montensis), Atlantic Forest climbing mouse (Rhipidomys mastacalis), house mouse (Mus musculus), lesser grison (Galictis cuja) and crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous).[37][38]

One of the most conspicuous mammals in the area is the black-tufted marmoset (Callithrix penicillata), locally known as mico-estrela. The animals are often seen in parks and wooded fragments at the foot of the range.[9][37]

Other mammals include porcupines, tatu-galinha (Dasypus novemcinctus) and preás.[lower-alpha 31][9][36] Coatis are also highly visible in Parque das Mangabeiras. They are the most abundant carnivores reported there and have been studied for their population size, management and parasites.[35][37]

Reptiles

Reptiles are also part of the fauna of Serra do Curral, although they are less fully documented than birds and plants. About 20 reptile species are known from protected areas on the Belo Horizonte side of the range,[9][35] including Trilepida jani, a small blind snake and the lizards Ameivula cipoensis and Cercosaura quadrilineata.[39][40]

Amphibians

Amphibians are closely tied to the springs, streams and moist forested areas at the foot of the range. Those wet microhabitats are vulnerable to urban pressure. Still, about 20 amphibian species are known from protected areas, including Hylodes uai, a stream-dwelling frog whose name refers to the Minas Gerais expression uai.[lower-alpha 32][9] Other species found in the area include Ischnocnema izecksohni, Rhinella pombali, Odontophrynus cultripes, the white-spotted tree frog (Boana albopunctata), the blacksmith tree frog (Boana faber) and the Usina tree frog (Boana lundii).[41][42]

Insects

Several insect groups are found in the area, including butterflies, ants, beetles, bees, ladybirds and green lacewings.[43][44][45][46][47]

Stingless bees found in the area include Cephalotrigona capitata, Geotrigona subterranea, Melipona quadrifasciata, Nannotrigona testaceicornis, Paratrigona lineata, Paratrigona subnuda, Plebeia droryana, Tetragonisca angustula and Trigona spinipes.[lower-alpha 33][48] Ants found in the area include Pheidole oxyops, Ectatomma permagnum, Pachycondyla striata and Neoponera verenae, along with other Pheidole species.[49]

Threatened and restricted animals

The known fauna of Serra do Curral includes species of conservation interest, but the evidence varies by animal group. Some species have formal conservation categories. Others matter because they are locally restricted, poorly known, or were first named from protected areas at the foot of the range.[lower-alpha 34]

Among birds in Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral, the blue finch (Rhopospina caerulescens) is the clearest species of global conservation concern. The species is Near Threatened and is associated with open savanna and grassland habitats in Brazil and Bolivia.[50]

The amphibian fauna includes species with narrow or poorly known distributions, such as the Hylodes uai.[51][52][53] That species is classified as Data Deficient, meaning that available information is not enough for a full extinction-risk assessment. Another data deficient amphibian is Ischnocnema izecksohni, first named from Parque das Mangabeiras.[41][54][55]

Flora

Praça Israel Pinheiro, better known as Praça do Papa, with Serra do Curral in the background.

Vegetation zones

The vegetation of Serra do Curral changes over short distances. Altitude, slope, sun exposure, moisture and rock type all matter. The crest and upper slopes have ferruginous campos rupestres over canga, while lower parts of the Belo Horizonte slope include open Cerrado formations such as campo limpo, campo sujo and campo cerrado.[lower-alpha 35] Forest formations become more common on lower slopes and in nearby protected areas, especially in Parque das Mangabeiras and Mata do Jambreiro.[8]

The range lies in a transition between the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest. Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral has the open and rocky vegetation of the crest. Nearby wooded areas form a belt of preserved vegetation along the city's edge.[8] In Parque das Mangabeiras, Cerrado vegetation occupies higher areas with shallower and poorer soils. Valley bottoms and nearby slopes have Atlantic Forest vegetation, where soils are generally deeper and richer.[9]

The Cerrado terms used for the range come from Brazil's wider classification of vegetation physiognomies.[lower-alpha 36] Cerrado vegetation includes forest, savanna and grassland formations. Campo limpo, campo sujo and campo rupestre are among its grassland formations.[56] On Serra do Curral, these formations do not form neat bands. They appear as a mixed pattern shaped by thin soils, exposed rock, fire history, drainage and the contact between iron-rich substrates and forested slopes.[5]

The ferruginous campos rupestres of the crest are part of the wider canga setting of the Iron Quadrangle. Canga vegetation grows on ironstone outcrops, usually on mountaintops and upper slopes, often in small and isolated patches. In the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, these patches can have high plant diversity, and species composition can change sharply from one outcrop to another.[57] Campos rupestres in Brazil are diverse plant communities. Their species composition changes with substrate and vegetation structure, and ironstone forms are commonly called canga.[58]

Vascular plant inventory

The main plant list for the crest comes from a 2019 Federal University of Minas Gerais inventory of Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral. The sampled area followed a deactivated ecological trail about 2.2 km (1.4 mi) long and 1 to 5 m (3.3 to 16.4 ft) wide. Fieldwork took place monthly for one year using the walking method. Voucher specimens[lower-alpha 37] were deposited in the BHCB herbarium at the university.[5]

The list included 163 vascular plant species in 129 genera and 51 families. Of these, 158 species were angiosperms[lower-alpha 38] and five were monilophytes. No gymnosperms were found.[5] Before this work, the crest had no floristic inventory focused on plant richness, endemism or threatened species.[5]

The richest families were Asteraceae, with 30 species, Fabaceae with 13, Melastomataceae with nine, Poaceae and Solanaceae with eight each, Rubiaceae with seven, and Myrtaceae and Orchidaceae with six each. These families accounted for more than 53% of the recorded species. The richest genus was Solanum, with seven species.[5]

The crest flora is mostly herbaceous and shrubby. Herbs made up 44.2% of the recorded species, shrubs 30.7%, subshrubs 13.5%, trees and climbers 5.5% each, and one species was parasitic. Most species grew in soil, while about 11% were rupicolous.[lower-alpha 39] This pattern fits the exposed canga outcrops and shallow rocky substrates of the crest.[5]

The same project produced an illustrated interactive identification key for the crest flora on the Xper3 platform. The key used 29 descriptors and 161 vegetative and reproductive character states.[5]

Cerrado and Atlantic Forest transition

The crest flora sits in a transition area between two major Brazilian phytogeographic domains.[lower-alpha 40] Of the 163 vascular plant species found on the crest, 136 occur in the Cerrado domain and 113 occur in the Atlantic Forest domain. Some had narrower domain patterns, including 24 listed only for the Cerrado and eight listed only for the Atlantic Forest.[5]

The transition is visible on the slope itself. The crest and upper slopes are dominated by open vegetation on shallow, iron-rich substrates. Forest formations become more common in ravines, lower slopes and nearby protected areas. Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral contains ferruginous campos rupestres and Cerrado formations. Parque das Mangabeiras preserves a larger wooded area at the foot of the range, with Cerrado vegetation in higher areas and Atlantic Forest vegetation in valley bottoms and moister slopes.[8][9]

The Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest are broad vegetation domains, not single vegetation types. The Cerrado includes grassland, savanna and forest formations. The Atlantic Forest domain includes several forest and non-forest formations across a wide coastal and inland range in Brazil.[56][59] Serra do Curral is better understood as mixed vegetation on a slope than as a simple line between two biomes. A short section of terrain can include exposed canga, open grassland, shrubland, gallery forest and Atlantic Forest elements.

The crest flora differs from the more wooded foothills. Most sampled plants were herbs, shrubs or subshrubs. Only a small share were trees or climbers. This pattern follows the conditions of the crest, with high exposure, thin soil, rocky outcrops and ferruginous substrates. Forest species are more common where slopes are moister, soils are deeper and stream valleys offer shelter from sun and wind.[5][9]

Canga habitats

The canga habitats of Serra do Curral occur mainly on the crest and upper slopes, where ferruginous crusts, shallow soils and exposed ironstone support open rocky vegetation. In Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral, the crest is dominated by ferruginous campos rupestres, with a small patch of forest also present along the sampled trail.[5] These habitats are part of the wider canga setting of the Iron Quadrangle, where ironstone outcrops occur as scattered mountaintop and upper-slope patches.[25]

Canga vegetation grows under harsh surface conditions. The substrate is rich in iron and manganese. Soils are often shallow. Plants face high exposure, strong daily temperature changes and limited water in many microhabitats.[25] These conditions favor herbs, shrubs, subshrubs and rupicolous plants that can grow in thin soil pockets, cracks and exposed rock. On the Serra do Curral crest, herbs and shrubs made up most of the species in the 2019 vascular-plant inventory, and about 11% of the species grew directly on rocks or in rock crevices.[5]

The canga flora of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero has high alpha and beta diversity,[lower-alpha 41] many rare species and several taxonomic novelties in ferruginous outcrops of the region.[60] Canga at Serra da Calçada, another ferruginous area of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, has vegetation closely tied to ironstone substrates.[61] These works are regional, not inventories of Serra do Curral, but they give context for the small canga remnants on the range.

The crest of Serra do Curral has the same fragility seen in other canga habitats. Before the 2019 UFMG inventory, the ferruginous fields in Parque Municipal da Serra do Curral had not been systematically inventoried, even though herbarium specimens from the range already existed. Urban occupation, mining, fire and illegal plant collection are among the pressures on the area.[5] Canga vegetation depends on specific rock surfaces, thin soils and microhabitats, so damaged areas are difficult to recreate. Restoration requires replanting species and rebuilding the surface conditions that allow those species to survive.[25]

Foothill and forest vegetation

The lower slopes and foothills of Serra do Curral are more wooded than the exposed crest. In Parque das Mangabeiras, native vegetation includes Cerrado and Atlantic Forest formations. Cerrado occupies the higher areas of the park, where soils are shallower and poorer in nutrients. Common trees in these areas include barbatimão, candeia, caviúna, guabiroba, murici and pau-santo.[9] Atlantic Forest vegetation grows in valley bottoms and nearby slopes, where soils are deeper and richer. Typical trees named by the Belo Horizonte municipal government include copaíba, guanandi, jacarandá, jequitibá, pau-jacaré and quaresmeira.[9]

Parque das Mangabeiras preserves a different part of the Serra do Curral vegetation gradient. The crest park is known for open ferruginous fields. Mangabeiras protects wooded valleys, moister slopes and spring-fed areas at elevations of about 1,000 to 1,300 m (3,300 to 4,300 ft).[9] Its forested areas help connect the crest of Serra do Curral with other protected areas on the southern and eastern side of Belo Horizonte.[5]

The Mata do Jambreiro reserve, in Nova Lima, adds a larger forest fragment to this setting. State tourism material lists the RPPN Mata do Jambreiro as a 912 ha (2,250 acres) private reserve in Serra do Curral, in a transition area between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, with species such as murici, caxeta, pau-jacaré, braúna-preta, copaíba, bicuíba and samambaiuçu.[62]

Mata do Jambreiro lies in the Iron Quadrangle, in the southeastern portion of the Espinhaço Range, and is covered mainly by semideciduous seasonal montane forest.[lower-alpha 42] Sampling in three areas inside a continuous forest fragment counted 111 tree species in 40 families. Fabaceae was the richest family, with 14.29% of the species. The sampled areas had low floristic similarity, so nearby parts of the same forest fragment can differ strongly in species composition.[63]

The lower and moister areas are part of Serra do Curral's flora as much as the rocky crest. They include wooded foothills, ravines, stream valleys and forest fragments where Cerrado and Atlantic Forest elements meet. These areas also have tree communities, springs and shaded habitats that differ sharply from the exposed canga fields above.[9][63]

Threatened and restricted plants

Belo Horizonte with Serra do Curral on the horizon.

Several plants found on the crest of Serra do Curral are threatened, locally restricted or tied to specialized rocky habitats. In the 2019 UFMG inventory, the species listed as threatened under the federal list used at the time were Arthrocereus glaziovii, Barbacenia williamsii, Cattleya caulescens, Sinningia rupicola and Hippeastrum morelianum.[5] The same inventory listed Lychnophora pinaster, Mimosa pogocephala, Paliavana sericiflora, Sinningia rupicola, Sporobolus metallicolus, Cattleya caulescens, Cattleya crispata and Arthrocereus glaziovii as threatened in Minas Gerais.[5][lower-alpha 43]

Brazil's 2022 national threatened-species list keeps several of these plants in threatened categories. Arthrocereus glaziovii, Cattleya caulescens and Sinningia rupicola are listed as endangered, while Hippeastrum morelianum is listed as vulnerable.[64] The older federal and Minas Gerais statuses used in the 2019 inventory show how the crest flora was assessed at the time. The 2022 federal list should be used for current national status.

Some threatened plants are closely tied to ferruginous rocky habitats of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero. Arthrocereus glaziovii is a cactus of campo rupestre and canga environments. Its distribution is linked to abiotic variables, soil elements and pressure from mining titles in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero.[65] The species is endemic to Minas Gerais and restricted to hematitic outcrops, or canga, in micropropagation literature.[66]

Sinningia rupicola is another important species in the range's rocky fields. Sinningia rupicola grows on rocky outcrops in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero and is a threatened canga endemic in that region.[67][68] Cattleya caulescens, a rupicolous orchid, is native to Minas Gerais and grows mainly as a lithophyte, a plant rooted on rock.[69]

These species give the crest flora conservation value beyond its species count. Several plants there are not common Cerrado or Atlantic Forest species growing inside a city park. They belong to specialized communities shaped by canga, thin soil, high exposure and rocky microhabitats. Their presence on Serra do Curral links the range to the wider conservation problem of ferruginous campos rupestres in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, where many plants have narrow distributions and depend on habitats that are difficult to replace once removed.[5][65]

Human history

Palácio das Mangabeiras, near the foot of Serra do Curral.

Indigenous presence and colonial routes

The human history of Serra do Curral predates the planned city of Belo Horizonte and the colonial settlement of Curral del Rei. Archaeological research in Belo Horizonte has identified Indigenous sites in the municipality, including material collected between the 1930s and 1950s, with Córrego do Cardoso as one of the main known sites.[70]

In the colonial period, the area that became Curral del Rei stood near routes used by travelers, cattle drivers and suppliers moving between the interior and the mining districts of Minas Gerais. The historical entry maintained by IBGE[lower-alpha 44] links the growth of the settlement to travelers who passed through the area while driving cattle from Bahia toward the mines. The settlement then grew around small farming, cattle raising and trade, flour production, small industries and the extraction of stone and limestone.[10]

The wider colonial route system also connected the region to the search for Sabarabuçu, a name linked to early reports of mineral wealth in the interior of Minas Gerais.[lower-alpha 45] The modern Estrada Real[lower-alpha 46] program treats the Caminho do Sabarabuçu as a route along the Rio das Velhas, with mountains such as Serra da Piedade serving as landmarks for travelers approaching the mining areas of Raposos, Sabará and Caeté.[71] In this setting, Serra do Curral functioned as one of the visible mountain markers of the northern edge of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero and the old Rio das Velhas route system.[72]

Curral del Rei and the new capital

The settlement at the foot of the range became known as Curral del Rei.[lower-alpha 47] IBGE links the name to the movement of cattle through the region and notes that the old name of Serra de Congonhas was later changed to Serra do Curral. The local devotion to Our Lady of Good Voyage also became central to the settlement, whose main church stood in the old arraial.[10]

Curral del Rei grew through small-scale agriculture, cattle raising, trade and local production. Its economy was based on small farming, the raising and sale of cattle, flour production, early manufacturing, the casting of iron and bronze, and the extraction of granite and limestone.[10] The settlement was later elevated to a parish and remained connected administratively to Sabará before the creation of the new capital.

The choice of the site for the new capital transformed the old settlement. The Comissão Construtora da Nova Capital, led by engineer Aarão Reis, worked between 1894 and 1897 to plan and build Belo Horizonte. The surviving administrative, accounting and technical papers of the commission are now preserved through a shared archive system involving the Arquivo Público Mineiro, the Arquivo Público da Cidade de Belo Horizonte and the Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto.[73]

The new city was planned on the territory of the old arraial, then already renamed Belo Horizonte. The 1895 plan of the Comissão Construtora placed the new capital over the earlier settlement. Construction destroyed the old village and removed its population.[74] Black territorial practices and a mostly Black local population were displaced or forced to move during the creation of the planned capital.[75]

Serra do Curral framed this transformation. The range served as a geographic reference for the site of the old settlement and the planned city, and later became one of the most visible natural markers of the capital. Abílio Barreto wrote that the range helped make the site attractive for settlement, because it acted as a barrier against winds and stood near fertile land and springs at the foot of the mountains.[76][77]

Waterworks and early infrastructure

Water from the Serra do Curral area tied the old rural settlement to the first public works of Belo Horizonte. Streams and springs descending from the range fed the early water system, while engineers had to fit those watercourses into the plan for the new capital. Sanitary engineer Saturnino de Brito worked with Aarão Reis in the Comissão Construtora and helped design the city's water and infrastructure networks.[30]

The Reservatório da Serra is one of the surviving structures from that early system. It stands within Parque Amilcar Vianna Martins and was constructed in 1897, the year the city was inaugurated.[7]

The foothills of Serra do Curral remained tied to the city's water supply in later decades. In 1941, Belo Horizonte's first water treatment station was installed in the area now occupied by Parque das Mangabeiras, near the present-day North Gate, and supplied the Serra neighborhood.[9]

Urban development

Panoramic view of Serra do Curral.

Small farms and early neighborhoods

Belo Horizonte was planned with urban, suburban and rural zones. The urban zone held the formal center of the new capital, with public buildings, commerce, services and planned housing. The suburban zone was set aside for small farms, garden plots and lower-density occupation. The rural zone was meant to help supply the city with food and agricultural products.[78] Land near Serra do Curral lay outside the planned core, but soon became part of the capital's suburban and rural belt.

Small farms appeared near the range during the 1910s and helped feed the growing city. As Belo Horizonte expanded, farms and gardens near the foot of Serra do Curral gave way to homes, roads and public institutions.[78]

Older farms, streams and slopes still shaped the names and layout of several neighborhoods. In the Centro-Sul region, the former rural setting of Curral del Rei met the limits of the planned capital and later expansion toward Serra do Curral.[79] The mountain edge changed gradually, with formal subdivisions, informal settlements, public facilities and later high-income real-estate projects occupying land that had once been rural or semi-rural.

Informal settlements and removals

The steep terrain near Serra do Curral also received informal settlements in the first half of the 20th century. Among the best known were Pindura Saia and Pombal, near the area later used for the extension of Avenida Afonso Pena.[lower-alpha 48] Farther east, settlements such as Cafezal and Marçola formed along the slopes and later became part of the Aglomerado da Serra, one of the largest favela complexes in Belo Horizonte.[lower-alpha 49][79]

Official maps often made these settlements hard to see. Pindura Saia was already occupied near the southern end of Avenida Afonso Pena by the early 1940s, close to the planned urban perimeter and on land desired by real-estate interests.[80]

Maps and aerial photographs from the 1950s and 1970s made informal settlements more visible to the municipality. They also gave public authorities technical tools for removal and redevelopment. In the case of Pindura Saia, the maps from 1942, 1953 and 1972 show the settlement first omitted, then more clearly drawn, and later affected by the final construction of urban projects in the area.[80]

Aglomerado da Serra remained and continued to grow. Pindura Saia and Pombal were removed during public campaigns against favelas from the late 1960s into the 1970s. City plans for the cleared areas included the Mercado Distrital do Cruzeiro, FUMEC University, Ginástico and Minas Tênis Clube II.[79] Belo Horizonte writer Conceição Evaristo drew on the destruction of a favela community and the lives of its residents in her novel Becos de memória.[81]

Real estate expansion and skyline controls

From the middle of the 20th century, the southern part of Belo Horizonte drew more real-estate interest. Public works, road extensions and favela removals opened land near Serra do Curral for higher-income residential development.[82] The mountain view that framed the planned capital also became a real-estate asset, especially in neighborhoods close to the city's southern edge.

Real-estate pressure reached the Serra do Curral area from the 1960s to the 1990s. One phase involved irregular occupation and construction in areas that had not been formally approved, helping give rise to the Mangabeiras neighborhood.[12] Another phase involved Belvedere. In 1988, changes to municipal law allowed tall buildings in an area previously associated with single-family houses. The change led to a long dispute among residents' associations, the municipal government and real-estate interests, especially because the neighborhood lies next to Serra do Curral and close to legally protected environmental and scenic areas.[13]

The dispute over Belvedere was also about the view of Serra do Curral. Belo Horizonte's original plan gave Avenida Afonso Pena a direct visual line toward the range, and the northern face of Serra do Curral became one of the city's best-known views.[83] Environmental and heritage rules sought to limit buildings that would rise above or interfere with the horizon line of the range.[12]

Belvedere still changed the mountain-edge view. Its verticalization in the 1990s became one of Belo Horizonte's clearest conflicts between real-estate expansion, environmental law and protection of the Serra do Curral skyline.[13] Later legal and administrative disputes continued around urban growth, the visible line of the range and the limits of heritage protection.[83]

Mining and environmental conflict

Serra do Curral seen from Praça da Estação in central Belo Horizonte.

Early extraction

Extraction from Serra do Curral began before Belo Horizonte was inaugurated. The range supplied stone, limestone, timber and other building materials for the new capital. Some of that material went into the first public buildings used when the city opened in 1897.[11][84]

The work changed the old rural area of Curral del Rei into a planned capital that needed stone, lime, wood, water and graded land. Serra do Curral supplied some of those materials while remaining the mountain line seen from the new city.[11][12]

Industrial mining

Industrial iron mining on Serra do Curral expanded in the 1960s. In 1961, Belo Horizonte authorized the creation of Ferro de Belo Horizonte S.A., known as Ferrobel, as a mixed-economy company[lower-alpha 50] for mineral extraction, trade and processing.[85] Ferrobel worked in areas of the range later associated with Parque das Mangabeiras and nearby neighborhoods.[12]

Other companies later mined along the range. Minerações Brasileiras Reunidas S.A. (MBR) operated the Águas Claras Mine, south of Belo Horizonte, on the southeastern flank of the Curral Ridge. Production began in 1973. The mine produced about 300 million metric tons of high-grade iron ore, with average annual production of about 12 million metric tons.[86] Its ore body was a tabular lens of soft hematite hosted in dolomitic itabirite of the Cauê Formation, about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) long, 250 m (820 ft) wide and 500 m (1,600 ft) deep.[86]

The Águas Claras Mine was nearing depletion in the early 2000s. In 2001, the lowest levels of the pit began to fill with water, forming a lake after mining ended.[86] Its closure left a large mined area on the urban edge of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, where reuse, safety and connection with the surrounding city became planning issues.[87]

Visible profile, water and ecological impacts

Mining changed the visible line of Serra do Curral. In the 1970s, the proposed railway connection between the Águas Claras Mine and Ibirité drew one of the first environmental complaints over damage to the range. The railway was built and altered the horizon line in the area of the present-day Mangabeiras and Serra neighborhoods.[12] The conflict drew public attention because the ridge was already one of Belo Horizonte's main views.[88]

Mining also affected water on and around the range. At Águas Claras, dewatering[lower-alpha 51] began in 1981. By 2000, the water level was about 275 m (902 ft) below its original position, after years of drainage and pumping. Dewatering, pit flooding and slope stability became major problems in the mine's final years and closure.[86] Local reports also linked mining to damaged springs and streams, including the use of stream water to wash waste from extraction and the use of streambeds for tailings[lower-alpha 52] drainage in the Taquaril area.[12]

Canga ecosystems in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero occur in small, often isolated ironstone patches, with high plant diversity and many habitat specialists.[25] In the region, canga habitat loss has reached about 50%, and many remaining patches are surrounded by open-pit mines and degraded areas.[89] On Serra do Curral, the remaining canga, Cerrado and forest patches sit within that same mining region.

Recent disputes and investigations

In 2022, Taquaril Mineração S.A. (Tamisa) received an environmental licence for the Complexo Minerário Serra do Taquaril, near the borders of Belo Horizonte, Nova Lima and Sabará. The project would affect about 101.24 ha (250.2 acres), extract iron ore for 13 years and remove native Atlantic Forest vegetation, including areas under permanent preservation.[lower-alpha 53] Public prosecutors and the Belo Horizonte municipal government challenged the licence in court, arguing that it threatened the cultural landscape of Serra do Curral and conflicted with the state's provisional heritage-protection process.[90][91]

In 2023, the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region upheld the suspension of Tamisa's activities on Serra do Curral. The case involved the quilombo[lower-alpha 54] Manzo Ngunzo Kaiango, which the Federal Public Ministry said used the affected area for its cultural practices and community life.[92]

In March 2025, the Controladoria-Geral da União and the Federal Police launched Operation Parcours, an investigation into alleged irregular mineral extraction in the Mina Corumi area, with suspected damage to protected parts of Serra do Curral and possible unpaid mineral royalties.[93]

In September 2025, the Federal Police and the Controladoria-Geral da União launched Operation Rejeito, an investigation into alleged environmental crimes, corruption and fraudulent mining licences in Minas Gerais, including iron-ore extraction in and near protected areas.[94][95]

Protection and conservation

Mountain landscape in Belo Horizonte, with Serra do Curral in the surrounding highlands.

Heritage listing

Serra do Curral first received federal protection after mining became a threat to the range. In 1958, Minas Gerais governor José Francisco Bias Fortes asked the federal heritage authority to protect it. On 21 September 1960, the Departamento do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, now IPHAN, listed part of Serra do Curral and Pico Belo Horizonte under process 591-T-58, inscription 29-A in the Livro do Tombo Arqueológico, Etnográfico e Paisagístico.[lower-alpha 55] The listed property was the Conjunto Paisagístico do Pico e parte alcantilada da Serra, the scenic ensemble of the peak and the steepest part of the range.[14]

The federal protected area changed in 1973 and came to cover 1,257,115 m2 (125.7115 ha; 310.640 acres).[14] In 2018, IPHAN set rules for the listed area and its surroundings, including height limits. Those rules later mattered in disputes over construction, mining and the view of the ridge.[15]

Belo Horizonte also protected the range through municipal law. Article 224 of the city's organic law[lower-alpha 56] made the mountain alignment of Serra do Curral, from Taquaril to Jatobá, a natural, scenic, artistic or historic monument for preservation.[96] The city later listed the Alinhamento Montanhoso da Serra do Curral through the Conselho Deliberativo do Patrimônio Cultural do Município de Belo Horizonte. Protection guidelines for surrounding areas were published in 2004.[14]

Minas Gerais began a state-level protection process in 2022. The state government recognized the range, in Belo Horizonte, Nova Lima and Sabará, as a property of relevant cultural interest.[97] IEPHA-MG[lower-alpha 57] then issued Portaria n. 22/2022, placing a defined area of Serra do Curral under provisional state protection while the Conselho Estadual de Patrimônio Cultural considered the proposed listing. The portaria covered the geological structure of the northern edge of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, the visible line of the range in the three municipalities, views from major lookout points, and the shape and relief of the ridge.[98]

Parks and ecological corridors

Parts of Serra do Curral are protected through parks and an ecological corridor. Parque das Mangabeiras - Maurício Campos, at the foot of the range, was created by municipal decree in 1966 and opened in 1982. Designed by Roberto Burle Marx, it covers about 2,500,000 m2 (250 ha; 620 acres), contains 59 springs of Córrego da Serra and lies between about 1,000 and 1,300 m (3,300 and 4,300 ft) in elevation.[9]

Parque da Serra do Curral was created in 1999 and opened on 8 September 2012 to protect the ridge. It covers about 400,000 m2 (40 ha; 99 acres) and has viewpoints along the crest, with views of Belo Horizonte and the metropolitan region.[8] Before the park opened, a signage project planned trail and viewpoint panels about the range's geology, vegetation, history and views.[99]

Other protected areas near the range include Parque Estadual da Baleia and Mata do Jambreiro. Parque Estadual da Baleia was created by state decree in 1988 and protects forested highland areas near Serra do Curral.[100]

In 2022, Belo Horizonte created the Corredor Ecológico Espinhaço-Serra do Curral through Municipal Decree n. 17,986/2022. Its boundaries came from work by Fundação Biodiversitas as part of an environmental-compensation measure.[lower-alpha 58] Municipal technicians and civil-society participants reviewed the boundaries in workshops.[16] The corridor links protected areas and vegetation fragments along the urban edge of the range. It is not a park.[101]

Public campaigns and legal protection

Federal and municipal listings left parts of Serra do Curral outside protected boundaries. In 1995, the range was chosen as a symbol of Belo Horizonte in a municipal plebiscite.[14]

In 2021, Belo Horizonte city councillor Duda Salabert delivered a petition for state listing to the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais. More than 60,000 people signed it.[102] In 2022, artists and civil-society representatives delivered a manifesto to the president of the Legislative Assembly opposing mining on the range.[103]

In 2022, the Ministério Público de Minas Gerais filed a public civil action[lower-alpha 59] seeking to suspend licences for a mining project on Serra do Curral. The case said the licences conflicted with the state heritage-listing process and its provisional protection rules.[104]

In 2026, a federal court restored environmental-protection limits for Serra do Curral, suspended 57 mining administrative processes that affected protected areas, and fined the National Mining Agency R$4 million for ignoring earlier court orders.[105]

Cultural significance

Serra do Curral is closely associated with Belo Horizonte's public image. Its silhouette marks the city's southern profile, and Pico Belo Horizonte, at 1,390 m (4,560 ft), is the main motif in the city's coat of arms.[1] In 1995, residents chose the range as a symbol of Belo Horizonte in a municipal plebiscite, ahead of the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi at Pampulha and Lagoa da Pampulha.[106] IPHAN's 2018 preservation ordinance classifies the range as a geographic landmark of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, with scenic, geological and ecological value.[15]

The current municipal flag, instituted in 1995 and later consolidated in the municipal symbols law of 2021, reproduces the city's coat of arms on a white field. The coat of arms shows a golden rising sun beside Serra do Curral and Pico do Curral del Rey in green.[107] In 2023, the municipal council approved a proposed new flag using simplified forms of the sky, sun and Serra do Curral. Voters rejected the change in a 2024 referendum, with 84.32% voting against the proposal.[107][108]

Praça Israel Pinheiro, better known as Praça do Papa, is another place closely tied to the view of the range. The square lies in the Mangabeiras neighborhood near the base of Serra do Curral. Its popular name comes from the 1980 visit of Pope John Paul II, after a field mass held there. It remains one of the best-known viewpoints of Belo Horizonte.[17]

The same ridge that appears in city symbols also lies within the iron-rich Quadrilátero Ferrífero. Preservation disputes often involve that overlap, with skyline and protected-area concerns on one side and mining licences on the other.[15][109]

Tourism and recreation

Serra do Curral is used for walks, viewpoints and environmental education on the southern edge of Belo Horizonte. The main access points are Parque da Serra do Curral, Parque das Mangabeiras and Praça Israel Pinheiro, better known as Praça do Papa.[8][9][17]

Parque da Serra do Curral is the main public park on the crest of the range. Created in 1999 and opened on 8 September 2012, it covers about 400,000 m2 (40 ha; 99 acres) and was created to protect Serra do Curral, a nationally listed landscape and symbol of Belo Horizonte.[18] The park has ten viewpoints along about 4,000 m (2.5 mi) of the ridge. They overlook Belo Horizonte and the metropolitan region, including Lagoa da Pampulha, Parque Municipal Américo Renné Giannetti, Avenida Afonso Pena, Mineirão, the Federal University of Minas Gerais Museum of Natural History and Botanical Garden, Pico do Itabirito, Serra da Piedade and Serra do Rola-Moça State Park.[18][110]

The park has hosted guided walks. Municipal trail programming has included a route of about 3.4 km (2.1 mi), lasting about 90 minutes, with steep sections, exposed rocks and slippery terrain. The route passes through campo rupestre vegetation and includes stops on the park's history, Serra do Curral and environmental impacts on the range.[111][112] At times, trail access has been limited because of threatened-flora studies and trail management, with free walking restricted to Mirante 3 in municipal notices.[112]

Interpretive signage was planned before Parque da Serra do Curral opened. A 2010 project proposed signs for trails and viewpoints, with information on the range's history, biodiversity and visible landmarks.[99]

Parque das Mangabeiras lies below the range. The park has about 2,500,000 m2 (250 ha; 620 acres), Cerrado and Atlantic Forest vegetation, and 59 springs of Córrego da Serra.[9][111] Municipal trail programming has included walks from Praça das Águas to Lago dos Sonhos, with stops related to animals, plants and water features.[111] The Mirante da Mata, inside Parque das Mangabeiras, has views of Serra do Curral, the park vegetation and several neighborhoods of Belo Horizonte.[113]

Praça Israel Pinheiro, popularly known as Praça do Papa, is one of the best-known public viewpoints near Serra do Curral. The square received its popular name after the 1980 visit of Pope John Paul II, when a field mass was held there and a monument was later erected in his honor. The square is used for walks, public gatherings and views of Belo Horizonte.[17]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Iron Quadrangle" or Quadrilátero Ferrífero, in Portuguese, is a mineral-rich region of Minas Gerais named for its iron ore deposits and for the rough four-sided shape formed by several mountain ranges.
  2. ↑ Pico means peak in Portuguese. Here it is part of the name of the summit.
  3. ↑ The Minas Supergroup is a major package of ancient sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in Minas Gerais.
  4. ↑ Itabirite is an iron-rich metamorphic rock. In Minas Gerais, it is important because it can contain iron ore.
  5. ↑ In geology, a formation is a named body of rock with features that let geologists map it.
  6. ↑ Canga is a hard natural crust or rock layer rich in iron. It often forms on old iron-rich rocks and can support very specialized plants.
  7. ↑ Campos rupestres are rocky grasslands and shrublands, usually found on mountaintops or exposed rocky soils. They often have many plants adapted to thin soil, sun and wind.
  8. ↑ A gallery forest is a strip of forest that follows a river, stream or wet valley, often through a more open landscape.
  9. ↑ Vascular plants have internal tissues that move water and nutrients. They include flowering plants, ferns and many similar plants.
  10. ↑ Arraial was a common Portuguese term for a small settlement or village, especially in colonial Brazil. Curral del Rei may be translated as "King's Corral".
  11. ↑ IPHAN is Brazil's federal agency for protecting historic, artistic and cultural heritage. Its listings can protect buildings, landscapes and other cultural sites.
  12. ↑ A plebiscite is a direct vote in which residents choose between options put to them by the government.
  13. ↑ Praça means square or public plaza in Portuguese.
  14. ↑ The name means "Our Lady of Good Voyage of the King's Corral". It kept the religious name of the settlement and the older form of Curral del Rey.
  15. ↑ Fazenda means farm or rural estate in Portuguese. In Brazil, the word often refers to a larger rural property.
  16. ↑ BR-040 is a Brazilian federal highway. Roads whose names begin with BR are part of the federal highway system.
  17. ↑ A hogback is a long, narrow ridge made from tilted rock layers. One side is usually steep, while the other side slopes more gently.
  18. ↑ In Brazilian Portuguese, córrego usually means a small stream, while ribeirão is often used for a larger stream or small river.
  19. ↑ Greenstone belts are zones of very old volcanic and sedimentary rocks. They are common in ancient parts of Earth's crust and can host mineral deposits.
  20. ↑ Paleoproterozoic refers to a time interval from about 2.5 to 1.6 billion years ago.
  21. ↑ A homocline is a set of rock layers tilted in the same general direction. An overturned homocline has layers that have been tilted so far that they are partly upside down.
  22. ↑ A banded iron formation is an ancient layered rock with repeated bands rich in iron minerals and bands rich in silica or carbonate minerals. Many of the world's major iron-rich rocks come from formations of this type.
  23. ↑ A syncline is a fold in rock layers that bends downward, broadly like a trough. In structural geology, vergence means the direction in which a fold or fault appears to have moved or leaned during deformation.
  24. ↑ Martite is hematite that has replaced magnetite while keeping the crystal shape of the original magnetite. Specular hematite, or specularite, is a shiny, platy form of hematite.
  25. ↑ Rare earth elements are a group of metals used in many modern technologies. They are not always rare in nature, but they are often hard to extract in useful amounts.
  26. ↑ Edaphic means related to soil, especially the way soil chemistry, texture, depth and moisture affect living things.
  27. ↑ An aquifer is a body of rock or sediment that can store and transmit groundwater. The itabiritic aquifer is associated with itabirite.
  28. ↑ An integrated water-supply system connects several reservoirs, treatment plants and pipelines so water can be moved across a metropolitan area.
  29. ↑ Avifauna means the bird life of a place.
  30. ↑ Jacu is a Portuguese common name often used for guans. Saracura is often used for rails and crakes, birds that live near wet or dense vegetation.
  31. ↑ Preá is a Portuguese common name for small wild cavies, relatives of guinea pigs. It is often used for the Brazilian guinea pig, Cavia aperea, but local sources may use the name more broadly.
  32. ↑ Uai is a common interjection in Minas Gerais. It can express surprise, doubt, emphasis or casual reaction, depending on the context.
  33. ↑ Stingless bees are social bees common in tropical regions. They can still defend their nests, but they do not have the same kind of functional sting as honey bees.
  34. ↑ A species can be important for conservation even when it is not formally listed as threatened. It may have a small range, depend on a rare habitat, be known from few sightings, or lack enough data for a confident risk assessment.
  35. ↑ These are Cerrado vegetation types. Campo limpo is mostly open grassland, campo sujo has grasses with scattered shrubs and small trees, and campo cerrado has more woody vegetation while remaining more open than forest.
  36. ↑ In vegetation studies, physiognomy means the general look and structure of a plant community, such as whether it is grassy, shrubby or forested.
  37. ↑ Voucher specimens are preserved plant samples kept in a herbarium so other researchers can check the identification later.
  38. ↑ Angiosperms are flowering plants. Gymnosperms include plants such as conifers. Monilophytes include ferns and related plants.
  39. ↑ Rupicolous plants grow on rocks or in rock crevices. Terricolous plants grow in soil.
  40. ↑ A phytogeographic domain is a large area defined by its plant life, climate and geography.
  41. ↑ Alpha diversity means the variety of species in one place. Beta diversity means how much the species change from one place to another.
  42. ↑ A semideciduous seasonal forest is a forest where part of the tree canopy loses its leaves during the dry season. Montane means it occurs in a mountain or highland setting.
  43. ↑ Brazilian and state conservation lists use categories such as CR, EN and VU. CR means critically endangered, EN means endangered, and VU means vulnerable.
  44. ↑ IBGE is Brazil's national statistics and geography agency. It also maintains historical and geographic information about Brazilian municipalities.
  45. ↑ Sabarabuçu was a name linked to early colonial legends and reports of mineral wealth in the interior of Minas Gerais. It became associated with the search for gold and other precious metals.
  46. ↑ Estrada Real means "Royal Road". Today it refers to a heritage and tourism route based on colonial-era paths linked to mining, trade and travel in Minas Gerais.
  47. ↑ Historical texts use the older spelling del Rei or del Rey. Modern Portuguese would usually use do Rei.
  48. ↑ Avenida means avenue in Portuguese. Avenida Afonso Pena is one of the main axes of Belo Horizonte's planned center.
  49. ↑ A favela is an informal urban settlement. Many favelas began where low-income residents built homes on land without formal planning, services or legal title.
  50. ↑ In Brazil, a mixed-economy company is a company with public and private capital, usually created to carry out activities linked to public policy or public services.
  51. ↑ Dewatering is the pumping or draining of groundwater so a mine or construction site can stay dry enough to operate.
  52. ↑ Tailings are leftover crushed rock, water and fine material from ore processing. They can damage streams if they are not contained.
  53. ↑ In Brazilian environmental law, permanent preservation areas protect places such as riverbanks, springs, steep slopes and hilltops. The Portuguese term is often shortened to APP.
  54. ↑ A quilombo is a community with historical ties to Afro-Brazilian groups that resisted slavery or formed after slavery. Many quilombo communities have legal protections tied to land, culture and memory.
  55. ↑ The Livro do Tombo Arqueológico, Etnográfico e Paisagístico is one of IPHAN's heritage-register books. It is used for places with archaeological, ethnographic or landscape value.
  56. ↑ In Brazilian municipalities, an organic law works like a local constitution. It sets the basic rules for the city government.
  57. ↑ IEPHA-MG is the Minas Gerais state heritage institute. It works with the protection of cultural heritage at the state level.
  58. ↑ Environmental compensation is a legal tool that can require a developer or government body to support conservation when a project causes environmental impacts.
  59. ↑ A public civil action is a Brazilian lawsuit used to protect collective interests, such as the environment, cultural heritage or consumer rights.

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Serra do Curral". Geossit (in português). Serviço Geológico do Brasil. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Espinhaço Range". UNESCO. Man and the Biosphere Programme. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Dorr, John Van N. (1969). Physiographic, stratigraphic, and structural development of the Quadrilatero Ferrifero, Minas Gerais, Brazil (Report). Professional Paper. U.S. Geological Survey. pp. A1–A110. doi:10.3133/pp641A. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Borsagli, Alessandro; Castro, José Flávio Morais (2021). "Do protagonismo à invisibilidade: Geografia Histórica do córrego do Acaba Mundo e a sua relação com o sítio de Belo Horizonte-MG (1716/1973)" [From prominence to invisibility: Historical geography of the Acaba Mundo stream and its relation to the site of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (1716–1973)]. Caderno de Geografia (in português). 31 (65): 557–585. doi:10.5752/P.2318-2962.2021v31n65p557. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 9.18 9.19 9.20 9.21 9.22 "Parque das Mangabeiras - Maurício Campos". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). Fundação de Parques Municipais e Zoobotânica. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Barreto, Abílio (1995). Belo Horizonte: memória histórica e descritiva (in português) (2nd ed.). Belo Horizonte: Fundação João Pinheiro, Centro de Estudos Históricos. p. 358. ISBN 85-85930-05-5. Search this book on
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  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Vasconcelos, Fabrício César W. (2011). Ocupação do bairro Belvedere III: histórico e aspectos legais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil. XIII Encuentro de Geógrafos de América Latina (in português). San José, Costa Rica. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 "Ação Civil Pública - Serra do Curral" (PDF). Patrimônio Cultural MPMG (in português). Ministério Público de Minas Gerais. May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 "Portaria n. 437, de 19 de novembro de 2018" (PDF). Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (in português). 19 November 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Corredor Ecológico Espinhaço-Serra do Curral". Portal de Dados Abertos (in português). Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "Praça Israel Pinheiro - Praça do Papa". Portal Oficial de Belo Horizonte (in português). Belotur / Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 "Parque da Serra do Curral". Portal Oficial de Belo Horizonte (in português). Belotur / Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  19. ↑ "Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto - MHAB". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). Fundação Municipal de Cultura. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 Azevedo, Úrsula Ruchkys de; Renger, Friedrich E.; Noce, Carlos Maurício; Machado, Maria Márcia Magela. Serra da Piedade, Minas Gerais (PDF) (Report). Comissão Brasileira de Sítios Geológicos e Paleobiológicos. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  21. ↑ "Paleoproterozoic Banded Iron Formation of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero". The First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites. International Union of Geological Sciences. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Sanglard, Júlio Carlos Destro (2013). Geologia estrutural do segmento oeste da Serra do Curral, Quadrilátero Ferrífero, e o controle tectônico das acumulações de alto teor em Fe [Structural geology of the western segment of Serra do Curral, Quadrilátero Ferrífero, and the tectonic control of high-Fe accumulations] (Master's dissertation) (in português). Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  23. ↑ Reis, J. S.; Lopes, I. R.; Schaefer, C. E. G. R.; Ker, J. C.; Carvalho Filho, A.; Senra, E. O. (2014). Solos ferruginosos em áreas de canga, Sinclinal do Gandarela, Quadrilátero Ferrífero (MG) [Ferruginous soils in canga areas, Gandarela Syncline, Quadrilátero Ferrífero, Minas Gerais] (PDF). XX Congreso Latinoamericano y XVI Congreso Peruano de la Ciencia del Suelo (in português). Cusco. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  24. ↑ Vincent, Regina Célia; Meguro, Marico (2008). "Influence of soil properties on the abundance of plant species in ferruginous rocky soils vegetation, southeastern Brazil". Brazilian Journal of Botany. 31 (3): 377–388. Bibcode:2008BrJBo..3100002V. doi:10.1590/S0100-84042008000300002.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 Skirycz, Aleksandra; Castilho, Alexandre; Chaparro, Cristian; Carvalho, Nelson; Tzotzos, George; Siqueira, Jose O. (2014). "Canga biodiversity, a matter of mining". Frontiers in Plant Science. 5: 653. Bibcode:2014FrPS....5..653S. doi:10.3389/fpls.2014.00653. PMC 4241825. PMID 25505476.
  26. ↑ Spier, C. A.; Kumar, A.; Nunes, A. P. L. (2020). "Mineralogy and genesis of rare Al-phosphate minerals in weathered itabirite and iron ore from the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, Minas Gerais, Brazil". Ore Geology Reviews. 118. Bibcode:2020OGRv..11803359S. doi:10.1016/j.oregeorev.2020.103359. Unknown parameter |article-number= ignored (help)
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "UTE Ribeirão Arrudas". Comitê da Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio das Velhas (in português). Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  28. ↑ "A Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio das Velhas". Comitê da Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio das Velhas (in português). Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 "BH em Pauta: Riqueza hídrica nos Parques Municipais". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). 11 September 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Andrade, Warley Carlos de Paula (2014). "O Acaba Mundo já era": ocultamento e desaparecimento de um córrego em Belo Horizonte (Master's dissertation) (in português). Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  31. ↑ Felippe, Miguel; Lavarini, Chrystiann; Peifer, Daniel; Dolabela, Davi; Magalhães Jr., Antônio (2009). Espacialização e caracterização das nascentes em unidades de conservação de Belo Horizonte-MG [Spatialization and characterization of springs in conservation units of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais] (PDF). XVIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Recursos Hídricos (in português). Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Beato, D. A. C.; Monsores, A. M.; Bertachini, A. C. (2006). Potencial aqüífero nos metassedimentos do Quadrilátero Ferrífero - região da APA Sul RMBH - MG [Aquifer potential in the metasediments of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero: APA Sul RMBH region, Minas Gerais]. XIV Congresso Brasileiro de Águas Subterrâneas (in português). Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  33. ↑ "Copasa apresenta panorama atual do abastecimento na Região Metropolitana de BH". Notícias Copasa (in português). Companhia de Saneamento de Minas Gerais. 5 May 2026. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  34. ↑ Sistema Integrado de Abastecimento de Água da RMBH: Sistema de Produção Rio das Velhas (PDF) (Report) (in português). Agência Reguladora de Serviços de Abastecimento de Água e de Esgotamento Sanitário do Estado de Minas Gerais. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 Hemetrio, Nadja Simbera (2011). Levantamento Populacional e Manejo de Quatis (Procyonidae: Nasua nasua) no Parque das Mangabeiras, Belo Horizonte, MG [Population survey and management of coatis (Procyonidae: Nasua nasua) in Parque das Mangabeiras, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais] (Master's dissertation) (in português). Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 "Parque Mata das Borboletas". Portal Oficial de Belo Horizonte (in português). Belotur / Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Cruz, Olívia Monique Soares (2019). Levantamento de helmintos em quatis Nasua nasua Linnaeus, 1766 (Carnivora: Procyonidae) do Parque das Mangabeiras, Belo Horizonte-MG [Survey of helminths in coatis Nasua nasua Linnaeus, 1766 (Carnivora: Procyonidae) from Parque das Mangabeiras, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais] (Master's dissertation) (in português). Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  38. ↑ Oliveira, Francisco F. R.; Nessim, Rafael; Costa, Leonora P.; Leite, Yuri L. R. (2007). "Small mammal ecology in an urban Atlantic forest fragment in southeastern Brazil". Lundiana. 8 (1): 27–34. doi:10.35699/2675-5327.2007.23171. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  39. ↑ Pinto, Roberta R.; Fernandes, Ronaldo (2012). "A new blind snake species of the genus Tricheilostoma from Espinhaço Range, Brazil and taxonomic status of Rena dimidiata (Jan, 1861) (Serpentes: Epictinae: Leptotyphlopidae)". Copeia. 2012 (1): 37–48. doi:10.1643/CH-11-044 (inactive 27 May 2026).
  40. ↑ Manifestação à Câmara de Atividades Minerárias do Conselho Estadual de Política Ambiental (PDF) (Report) (in português). Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável de Minas Gerais. 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 "Ischnocnema izecksohni (Caramaschi and Kisteumacher, 1989)". Amphibian Species of the World. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  42. ↑ Torres, Priscilla Ferreira (2012). Uso de ambientes por anfíbios anuros em seis parques urbanos de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais [Habitat use by anuran amphibians in six urban parks of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais] (PDF) (Master's dissertation) (in português). Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  43. ↑ "Áreas de visitação no Parque da Mata das Borboletas são ampliadas". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). 17 November 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  44. ↑ "Parques municipais oferecem últimas trilhas gratuitas do ano". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). 1 December 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  49. ↑ Dolabela, B. M.; Antonini, Y.; Pinto, V. D.; Onésimo, C.; Brito, M. F.; Costa, F. V. (2026). "Little things in the cities: green spaces management shapes species centrality in ant-diaspore network in a vast tropical city". Urban Ecosystems. 29 (2). Bibcode:2026UrbEc..29...75D. doi:10.1007/s11252-026-01941-5. Unknown parameter |article-number= ignored (help)
  50. ↑ "Blue Finch Porphyrospiza caerulescens". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  51. ↑ Nascimento, Luciana Barreto; Pombal, José P. Jr.; Haddad, Célio F. B. (2001). "A new frog of the genus Hylodes (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae) from Minas Gerais, Brazil". Journal of Zoology. 254 (4): 421–428. doi:10.1017/S0952836901000917. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  52. ↑ "Hylodes uai Nascimento, Pombal, and Haddad, 2001". Amphibian Species of the World. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  53. ↑ "Hylodes uai". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  58. ↑ Zappi, Daniela C.; Moro, Marcelo F.; Meagher, Thomas R.; Lughadha, Eimear Nic (2017). "Plant biodiversity drivers in Brazilian campos rupestres: insights from phylogenetic structure". Frontiers in Plant Science. 8. Bibcode:2017FrPS....8.2141Z. doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.02141. PMC 5742226. PMID 29312396. Unknown parameter |article-number= ignored (help)
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  81. ↑ Evaristo, Conceição (2018). Becos de memória (in português) (3rd ed.). Rio de Janeiro: Pallas. ISBN 9788534705202. Search this book on
  82. ↑ Ribeiro, Raphael Rajão (2021). A várzea e a metrópole: futebol amador, transformação urbana e política local em Belo Horizonte (1947-1989) (Doctoral thesis) (in português). Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  83. ↑ 83.0 83.1 "MPMG cobra do Iphan definição das áreas de tombamento e entorno do Pico Belo Horizonte e do Conjunto da Serra do Curral". Ministério Público de Minas Gerais (in português). 6 December 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  92. ↑ "Terceira Turma mantém suspensão de atividades de mineradora na Serra do Curral". Tribunal Regional Federal da 6ª Região (in português). 31 August 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  94. ↑ "PF e CGU investigam esquema bilionário de corrupção e danos ambientais em Minas Gerais". Polícia Federal (in português). 17 September 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  100. ↑ Plano de Manejo do Parque Florestal Estadual da Baleia (PDF) (Report) (in português). Instituto Estadual de Florestas / Sistema Estadual de Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos. 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  104. ↑ "Em defesa da Serra do Curral, MPMG propõe Ação Civil Pública que pede suspensão de licenças para empreendimento de mineração no local". Ministério Público de Minas Gerais (in português). 6 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  105. ↑ "Justiça Federal acolhe pedido do MPF, restaura proteção da Serra do Curral (MG) e multa ANM em R$ 4 milhões". Ministério Público Federal (in português). 9 March 2026. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
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  107. ↑ 107.0 107.1 "Uma decisão coletiva para a nossa cidade". Câmara Municipal de Belo Horizonte (in português). 2 September 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  108. ↑ Mallmann, Daniela (7 October 2024). "Alteração da bandeira de Belo Horizonte é rejeitada por 84,32% da população". CNN Brasil (in português). Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  109. ↑ Custódio, Maraluce Maria; Ribeiro, José Cláudio Junqueira (2021). "Serra do Curral: significados e importância de proteção" [Serra do Curral: meanings and importance of protection]. Veredas do Direito (in português). 18 (42): 97–135. doi:10.18623/rvd.v18i42.2241 (inactive 27 May 2026).
  110. ↑ "Mirante do Parque da Serra do Curral". Portal Oficial de Belo Horizonte (in português). Belotur / Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  111. ↑ 111.0 111.1 111.2 "Trilhas nos Parques Municipais". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). Fundação de Parques Municipais e Zoobotânica. 14 May 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  112. ↑ 112.0 112.1 "Parque da Serra do Curral terá trilha guiada neste sábado". Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte (in português). 2 April 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  113. ↑ "Mirante da Mata - Parque das Mangabeiras". Portal Oficial de Belo Horizonte (in português). Belotur / Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte. Retrieved 26 May 2026.

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