| Fast Facts |
location
near Curitiba in the state of Parana; 38,000 square miles along the Atlantic coast
ecoregion
Atlantic Forest
project size
77,000 acres
preserves
Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Area, Morro da Mina
public lands
Serra dos Órgãos National Park, Superagui National Park, Tijuca National Park, Morro do Diabo State Park, Poço das Antas Biological Reserve
partners
Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem e Educação (SPVS), Fundação Boticário
conservancy initiatives
Global Climate Change
natural events
arrival of hundreds of red-tailed parrots to roost, Bay of Guaraqueçaba at sunset | |
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Climate action projects and other methods of placing economic value on standing forests are helping protect one of the world's most imperiled ecosystems. |
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Granite Mountain, Serra dos Órgãos National Park.
© Kevin Schafer/kevinschafer.com |
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To enter the Atlantic Forest today is to take a step back in time. Five centuries ago, the Mata Atlântica, as it is known, stretched seamlessly inland for hundreds of miles from Brazil's coast all the way to Paraguay and Argentina. Today, less than 7 percent of the original forest remains, much of it in isolated fragments. By contrast, the more celebrated Amazon is still 90 percent intact.
Despite its diminished state, the Atlantic Forest still ranks among the top five protection priorities worldwide for many conservation organizations. To understand why, consider just one statistic: Its forests contain more tree diversity on a two-and-a-half-acre plot than the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. Jaguars, tapirs and yellow-throated caimans roam amid this richness, carefully watched by endangered red-tailed parrots, gilt-edged tanagers and hundreds of other birds. |
Red-tailed parrots.
© Claus Meyer
/Minden Pictures |
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Humans are drawn to the Atlantic Forest as well: Roughly 70 percent of Brazil's population lives here. As a result, habitat fragmentation and land conversion are serious threats. Unsustainable logging, forestry, cattle ranching and agriculture are also widespread.
To protect what remains of this extraordinary forest, The Nature Conservancy has joined with its Brazilian partner SPVS to operate the country's first climate action project at the Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Area, the largest remaining tract of contiguous Atlantic rain forest in Brazil. Several U.S. energy corporations have |
| funded extensive climate action reforestation efforts here, viewing the forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, as a means to offset carbon dioxide emissions from their core businesses. Scientists calculate that protecting some 17,000 acres of forest can offset the emissions of roughly 750,000 cars in one year. | |
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Climate action projects recognize that standing forests have economic as well as biodiversity value. Our hope is that, 10 to 20 years from now, intact forest will equal or exceed cleared land in value.
For more information about the Atlantic Forest of Brazil:
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
jaguar, tapir, river otter, woolly spider monkey, black-faced tamarin, red-tailed parrot and more than 100 other endangered birds, tropical evergreen forest, restinga (sand forest)
stresses
habitat fragmentation and conversion, unsustainable logging, plantation forestry, cattle ranching, agriculture, urban sprawl, invasive species
strategies
undertake climate action projects, restore ecosystems, promote ecologically compatible land-use practices, strengthen local partner organizations
results
helped create private reserves totaling more than 60,000 acres; launched the first climate action project in Brazil | | | | |
