Located in the south of Brazil, in the transition between the Pampa and Atlantic Forest biomes, the territory of the Quarta Colônia UNESCO Global Geopark is formed by nine municipalities. About 62,000 inhabitants live in this territory, with one of the greatest cultural diversities in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, including Italian, German, Portuguese, Quilombola, native and missionary cultures. The mores and cultural traces of these different ethnic groups are perpetuated until the present day in the most different manifestations, such as gastronomy, music, dance and crafts.

The geopark overlaps with the Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1991 by UNESCO.

Celebrating Earth heritage

This territory is the source of a unique paleontological heritage at an international level, where the visitor can find testimonies of the rise of one of the most famous animal groups in Paleontology: the dinosaurs. The sedimentary rocks that support the landscape of this territory, deposited between 233 and 225 million years ago, in the Triassic Period, contain very well preserved records of a key moment in the history of life on planet Earth, such as the species Buriolestes schultzi, Bagualosaurus acuteensis and Macrocollum itaquii, which until now are exclusive to the Quarta Colônia.

Paleontological discoveries are greatly favored by the location of the Quarta Colônia UNESCO Global Geopark, which gives this territory a unique landscape heritage, with a mountainous set delimited by sandstone-basaltic escarpments covered by large fragments of Atlantic Forest still very well preserved. In the midst of this exuberant landscape, there are a large number of deep valleys carved over thousands of years by the energy of a large hydrographic network that provides the Quarta Colônia UNESCO Global Geopark with waterfalls, river beaches and navigable rivers.