The Maranhão Babaçu forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of north-central Brazil. The forests form a transition between the equatorial forests of the Amazon biome to the west and the drier savannas and xeric shrublands to the south and east.

Maranhão is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of 332,000 km2 (128,000 sq mi). Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent within the common Northeastern Brazilian dialect. Maranhão is described in literary works such as Exile Song by Gonçalves Dias and Casa de Pensão by Aluísio Azevedo.