It protects the last large area of well-preserved Upper Uruguay forest in the state, which is home to several rare or endangered species.

The falls may be threatened by flooding from the planned Garabí-Panambi Hydroelectric Complex if a 2015 court ruling is overturned.

The Turvo State Park is in the Northwest of Rio Grande do Sul, covering almost half of the municipality of Derrubadas.

There is a visitor center just inside the park entrance, with a biodiversity exhibition, environmental education space, auditorium and washrooms.

In state parks it is forbidden to hunt, fish, cut native species, open fire breaks, thin the forest or subdivide it into fields.

The main issue was that the reservoir would flood 60 hectares (150 acres) of the Turvo State Park, which holds regionally threatened flora and fauna, some at risk of extinction.

[10] In April 2015 the regional federal tribunal upheld the suspension, since the IBAMA Environmental Impact Study would have been "flagrantly illegal".

[11] The park would be part of the proposed Trinational Biodiversity Corridor, which aims to provide forest connections between conservation units in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina in the Upper Paraná ecoregion.

The forest typically has an upper statrum of mainly deciduous trees that lose their leaves in winter.

Below this is a stratum of dense perennial trees from 10 to 20 metres (33 to 66 ft) tall that retain their leaves in winter.

The endemic bromeliad Dickia brevifolia is found in a few places on the river banks and is at risk of extinction.

[5] Fauna include cougar (Puma concolor), collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), deer, ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), southern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla), tayra (Eira barbara), capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), howler monkey and otter.

[3] Studies of amphibians along the Garcia and Yucumã trails in 2003–05 found species that are often associated with crops, indicating influence by the nearby farmland.

The deep and narrow canyon formed during the last glacial period at a time when the climate was drier and the river was not as wide.

Visitors may walk along the rocky stretch opposite the falls between the forest edge and the river bank.