in fact, at the western edge of praia da ponta grossa is the área de proteção ambiental das brisas (mata do casqueiro), a park created in 1992 to preserve the local flora and fauna.

this park is of particular historical and archeological significance as it contains 'sambaquis' (shell-mounds) - ancient deposits formed by shells, kitchenware, utensils, and skeletons piled up by the populations which inhabited the coastal area in prehistoric times and then petrified by a natural calcification process.

the flora develops on the sandbanks dunes under marine influence.