Great Pontal Reserve
The Great Pontal Reserve (), formally called the Pontal do Paranapanema State Reserve (), is an ecological reserve is the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was created in 1942, but over the years suffered considerable degradation by illegal invasions and squatters. It was partly flooded after construction of the Eng Sérgio Motta Dam on the Paraná River. The reserve today is a poor agricultural region mostly used for cattle and sugar cane farming. Creation The Pontal do Paranapanema occupies the extreme west of the state of São Paulo. It is bounded to the north and west by the Paraná River and to the south by the Paranapanema River. To the east it was bounded by the advancing agricultural frontier. European occupation of the Pontal do Paranapanema region began in earnest when the Sorocabana Railway reached the Paraná River in 1917. Urban centers were built along the railway and intensive logging began, followed by farming of coffee, cotton, peanuts and cattle. The governor of São Paulo state in the early 1940s, Fernando Costa, created three reserves to protect public land in the region. The Morro do Diabo Forest Reserve, which later became the Morro do Diabo State Park, was created