The IBGE Ecological Reserve covers 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) and is 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Brasilia.

[6] The area includes Precambrian metasedimentary rocks of the Paranoá Group from the Brasiliano orogeny (550 to 900 million years ago), but most of the land is covered by Tertiary detrital laterite material.

[9] The Federal District requisitioned the land that year, and donated it to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, IBGE) in 1961.

The IBGE created the Reserva Ecológica do Roncador (RECOR) on 22 December 1975 as an ecological reserve for scientific research into the Brazilian Cerrado.

In 1978 the Brazilian Institute for Forest Development (Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento Florestal, IBDF) recognized the reserve as a permanent conservation area of scientific interest.

[10] Around this time several scientific papers were published on subjects such as insect ecology, tree growth and heavy metal pollution in the reserve.

As of 2009 the biome was being destroyed at about 14,200 square kilometres (5,500 sq mi) annually, so the need to document the ecology is urgent.

[17] The gallery forests cover about 104 hectares (260 acres) and are rich in species and play an important role in protecting water and wildlife.

[23] Other rare or endangered species include Brasília tapaculo, a bird, Brasilia lyrefin, a fish, and bush dog, a canid.