the Atlantic Forest biome, Brazil. | The most acute risk to the survival of the Atlantic Forests biodiversity is the very fragmented state of forest remnants and their ecological isolation from one another. Frontiers | Bird Extinctions in Brazil's Atlantic Forest and How They WWF works to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and wildlife, collaborating with partners from local to global levels in nearly 100 countries. Non-governmental organizations (NGO) are huge benefactors in Brazil, providing funding as well as professional help to the Atlantic Forest due to the Brazilian Environmental Movement. The ecoregion encompasses major cities like Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo and is home to around 150 million people. The disciplines of Geography, History and Ecology are important to understand how different elements that compose the landscape are interconnected in the flow of space-time (Solrzano et al. [23] A species of endangered three-toed sloth, named the maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus) because of its long hair, is endemic to the Atlantic Forest. This version of the page will remain live for reference purposes as we work to update the content across our website. Cludio Dias Timm/Flickr Creative Commons, Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests, Lire les traductions en franais de linformation de base. Mobile Terms & Conditions The Atlantic Forest is one of the most ecologically diverse places in the world, second only to the Amazon rainforest. In the northeastern part of Brazil it occupies a thin coastal strip not exceeding 40 miles in width, while in the south it extends from the coast to as far as 200 miles inland. Weak El Nio conditions remain in place after the event was officially deemed underway a month ago. For example, over 3000 tree species, 98 bat species, 94 large or medium-sized mammal species, over 2000 epiphyte species, 26 primate species, 528 amphibian species, 124 small mammal species, and over 800 bird species have been recorded in the Atlantic Forest. You may wonder what is the Atlantic Forest Reserve, why is it important? The Atlantic coastal forest of Northeastern Brazil. In fact, between 1990 and 2006 over a thousand new flowering plants were discovered. It is also one of the most vulnerable. Despite its diminished state, the Atlantic Forest still ranks as a global conservation priority. ", tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, Pontifcia Universidade Catlica do Rio Grande do Sul, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, Instituto de Tecnologia Intuitiva e Bio-Arquitetura, List of plants of Atlantic Forest vegetation of Brazil, "UMA NOTA SOBRE OS LIMITES TERRITORIAIS DA MATA ATLNTICA", "From hotspot to hopespot: An opportunity for the Brazilian Atlantic Forest", "The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot", "ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and nonvascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest", "ATLANTIC MAMMALS: a data set of assemblages of medium and largesized mammals of the Atlantic Forest of South America", "ATLANTIC PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America", "ATLANTIC AMPHIBIANS: a data set of amphibian communities from the Atlantic Forests of South America", "Atlantic small-mammal: a dataset of communities of rodents and marsupials of the Atlantic forests of South America", "ATLANTIC-CAMTRAPS: a dataset of medium and large terrestrial mammal communities in the Atlantic Forest of South America", "ATLANTIC BIRDS: a data set of bird species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest", "Helminths of some tree frogs of the families Hylidae and Phyllomedusidae in an Atlantic rainforest fragment, Brazil", "Thirty Years of Human Demography and Land-Use Change in the Atlantic Forest of Misiones, Argentina: an Evaluation of the Forest Transition Model", Biodiversity Hotspots - Atlantic Forest - Conservation Action, So Paulo Expands Atlantic Forest Protection Coverage, The Nature Conservancy: Atlantic Forest biome, UNESCO World Heritage Site: Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlantic_Forest&oldid=1163186715, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Portuguese-language text, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from June 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 3 July 2023, at 12:13. But as people burn and chop down massive amounts of trees, this forest coverage is rapidly dwindling. Restoring the Atlantic Forest ecosystem is critical for safeguarding the water supply of Brazil and the broader region; enhancing the resilience of plant, animal, and human communities to climate change; and sequestering atmospheric carbon. Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits that people derive from the natural environment, such as clean water, fertile soil, pollination of crops, and natural climate regulation. For example, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a multilateral treaty signed by most countries in the world that aims to promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, including tropical forests. There are so many reasons why we should conserve our forests and keep them standing. And that is exactly what new research shows: the Atlantic Forest provides one of the most important opportunities for landscape restoration in the world. Unfortunately, that's not all the two forests have in common: The Atlantic Forest is also critically threatened and needs our help. From hiking to ziplining to mountain biking, forests are a destination for epic adventures. [31] Key ecological processes such as seed dispersal, gene flow, colonization and other processes are disturbed by fragmentation. [11] Approximately 40 percent of its vascular plants and up to 60 percent of its vertebrates are endemic species, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. Brazils eastern seaboard has always been the main locus of its population and industry. In addition to absorbing carbon dioxide, trees remove other harmful pollutants from the air and pump out oxygen. It is essential to reduce the negative impacts of human activities on tropical forests and to promote sustainable management practices in order to maintain and conserve valuable ES. on 4 October 2022 ; Fact-checked by Naman Sodhi 6 mins to read Get inspiration for education! There are also efforts underway to recover lost areas of the forest. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], New species are continually being found in the Atlantic Forest. New species continue to be found in this rich forest complex despite its current state. Fourth, biodiversity and ES often interact and compete with each other which makes it difficult to understand their relationships and predict the impacts of changes in one variable to the other. These services are important because they support human well-being, food security, and the maintenance of biodiversity. In fact. This website uses cookies to enhance your experience and analyze performance and traffic on our website. WRI relies on the generosity of donors like you to turn research into action. They include species such the Vulnerable thin-spined porcupine (Chaetomys subspinosus) and Endangered painted tree rat (Callistomys pictus). The Nature Conservancy, which has been working in the Atlantic Forest since 1991 with a wide range of partners, has an ambitious plan to protect and restore30 million acres of this magnificent forest by 2015. Thanking Our Forest Mothers: The Role of Mother Trees in - WWF Brazil as a whole is theworlds leader in primate diversity, with 77 species and subspecies identified to date. The Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves are located in the Brazilian states of Paran and So Paulo and extend over nearly 470,000 hectares, representing one of the largest and best-preserved domains of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, and one of the most threatened biomes of the world. How we interact with them can either slow or exacerbate the climate crisis. Five hundred years ago, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil covered approximately 330 million acres (about twice the size of Texas), but todaymore than 85% of this forest has been clearedand what remains is highly fragmented. But we need help to keep this momentum going. An area of the Atlantic Forest restored with native trees to improve biodiversity and produce sustainable timber. The region is often in the international news, sometimes because of its diverse species, but most of the time because of deforestation and fires. CEPF is a joint initiative of lAgence Franaise de Dveloppement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan and the World Bank. This forest is also one of the richest natural areas on the planet, filled with iconic species like jaguars, sloths, tamarins, and toucans. The main cause of deforestation is agriculture (poorly planned infrastructure is emerging as a big threat too) and the main cause of forest degradation is illegal logging. Since 1990, more than 30 mammal species, nine bird species, and about 100 species of frogs have been discovered there. [1], It was the first environment that the Portuguese colonists encountered over 500 years ago, when it was thought to have had an area of 1,000,0001,500,000km2 (390,000580,000sqmi), and stretching an unknown distance inland, making it, back then, the second largest rainforest on the planet, only behind the Amazon rainforest. Its biodiversity is as impressive as the Amazon's. In tropical forests, preserving and restoring biodiversity is therefore critical for maintaining the wide range of ES provided to both local communities and the wider world. Farmers could invest in agroforestry, a system that mixes sustainable farming with forest cover, producing food and storing carbon at the same time. The Atlantic Forest harbors a range of biological diversity similar to that of the Amazon. A network of government, civil society, and private sector organizations is involved in restoration across the Atlantic Forest. In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest ecoregion produces 70% of the countrys gross domestic product or GDP. Specific trees, plants, and animals bear symbolic meaning in certain cultures and are often represented in art, folklore, and traditional practices. Just as important are the positive effects this healthy landscape could have for the economy. Many common household items such as furniture and books are derived from forest resources. . The Hague: SPB Academic Pub. Over 11,000 species of plants and animals are considered threatened today in the Atlantic Forest. However, if forests are destroyed then they can actually worsen climate change by releasing more carbon than they absorb. 14 Reasons Why Forests Are Important - Sustainable Travel International (CN) Amid the climate crisis ravaging the world, a study released Thursday shows that mammals in the threatened Atlantic Forest in South America experience stress about the danger of deforestation looming over their homes. 2008. What kinds of ecosystem services do tropical forests provide? A recent study in Reviews of Geophysics examines the relationship between ecosystem services and biodiversity with a focus on the tropical humid and subhumid forests of South America. El Nio Could Become Strong This Winter, NOAA Latest Update Says The Atlantic Forest stretches from northeast Brazil, south along the Brazilian Atlantic coastline and inland into northeast Argentina and eastern Paraguay. Title VI Notice of Nondiscrimination people die as a result of outdoor air pollution. Of these, 26 are found in the Atlantic forest, of which 21 are found nowhere else in the world. 2023 The Nature Conservancy The Atlantic Forest is one of the 36 hotspots for biodiversity conservation worldwide. The study looked for areas with the most cost-efficient restoration opportunities: lands with higher potential socioeconomic benefits (including biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and water security) and with higher restoration feasibility (including restoration costs and the probability that a restored area will persist over time without suffering deforestation). Surveys showed a 160% increase in jaguar numbers between 20052018 in the Upper Paran region, which can be partially attributed to improved habitat connectivity. The forest harbors around 20,000 species of plants, with almost 450 tree species being found in just one hectare in some locations. To review your email preferences, please visit nature.org/emailpreferences. It is a complex comprising 15 ecoregions, including tropical and subtropical rain forest, coastal forest, mangroves, and Araucaria moist forest. Charles Darwin explored the area during his expedition on the Beagle in 1832. visitors explore the worlds national parks and other protected areas, many of which are forested. More than 70 of the 260 mammals species in the hotspot are endemic. The alliance submitted restoration commitments to the Bonn Challenge, an international effort to restore degraded land around the world. (I accept). In fact, more than a quarter of modern medicines are derived from tropical forest plants. The director of marine operations at OceanGate, the company whose submersible went missing Sunday on an expedition to the Titanic in the North Atlantic, was fired after raising concerns about its . Answering this question constitutes an important endeavor for the scientific community, policymakers, and organizations leading the planning and implementation of restoration projects. FG Trade Joseph Lee Published Jan 26, 2023 Topic Climate +. Habitat fragmentation leads to a cascade of alterations of the original forest landscape.
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