At the request of a number of civil organisations the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) prepared a proposal for creating the park, protecting a large part of the Belo Horizonte water sources, which were seriously threatened by mining for iron ore. The original proposal in 2010 was to protect an area of 38,220 hectares (94,400 acres), but this was reduced before the park was created.[1] Public discussions about the project were started on 10 April 2012.[2]