Fishing in Parque Nacional das Sempre-Vivas

Parque Nacional das Sempre-Vivas sits on the high plateaus of the Serra do Espinhaço in northern Minas Gerais, where altitudes run from around 650 to 1,525 meters and average rainfall of 1,200 millimeters a year feeds roughly 600 springs.

That water drains two directions: north and west toward the Rio São Francisco, south and east toward the Rio Jequitinhonha.

The park is essentially a headwaters landscape — streams, ribeirões, and gallery-forest corridors threading through campos rupestres and cerrado, not big lowland rivers.

The Rio Jequitinhonha and Rio Jequitaí both have their origins in or near the park, along with smaller named waters including Ribeirão Maravilha, Ribeirão Duas Barras, Ribeirão Inhacica Grande, Ribeirão dos Campeiros, and Ribeirão Cachoeirinha.

At these elevations the watercourses tend to be clear, rocky, and seasonal in character — running strongest through the wet season and dropping considerably in the dry months.

Before planning any trip around fishing here, there is one fact that overrides everything else: fishing is explicitly prohibited inside the park.

The ICMBio risk acknowledgment document for Parque Nacional das Sempre-Vivas lists fishing among the prohibited activities, and entering the park with fishing gear is among the most commonly cited infractions in the park's enforcement record.

As a unidade de proteção integral administered by ICMBio, the park does not permit recreational fishing within its boundaries. The rivers that rise here — particularly the Jequitinhonha and Jequitaí — do support fishing in areas outside the park.

If those are your target waters, the place to start is downstream, beyond the park boundary, and with current ICMBio and state guidance on what applies where.

Access to the park itself is already limited and public use infrastructure is sparse; the nearest reference point is Diamantina, roughly 53 kilometers from the main entrance near Macacos.

The headwaters are worth understanding even if you're fishing below them. What happens at 1,200 meters shapes water quality and flow for a long way downstream.