[4] European occupation of the 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.

However, low fertility of the soil and distance from natural markets has meant that only cattle and sugarcane are profitable, and the region is the poorest in the state of São Paulo.

[9] It would be part of a proposed Trinational Biodiversity Corridor connecting conservation units in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

Fishing regulations were published on 2 October 2008, covering conservation areas and their buffer zones in the Paraná River basin.

[13] In 2016 researchers captured a group of black lion tamarins and gave them GPS collars, providing a new way to monitor the individuals and better understand how they are using the space and responding to fragmentation.

[15] Vegetation is seasonal semideciduous, or Interior Atlantic Forest, with partial loss of leaves during the dry winter months.

[8] Fauna in the Pontal do Paranapanema region include the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus), jaguar (Panthera onca), South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and collared peccary (Pecari tajacu).

Vulnerable or endangered birds include shrike-like laniisoma (Laniisoma elegans), wing-barred piprites (Piprites chloris), shrike-like tanager (Neothraupis fasciata), bare-throated bellbird (Procnias nudicollis) and solitary tinamou (Tinamus solitarius).