Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Has Lost 90 Percent Of Original Habitat

Much attention has been focused on the steady destruction of the Brazilian Amazon, but a recent study confirms that the country’s “other” rainforest — which once stretched along the Atlantic coast — is in far worse shape. Analyzing satellite images and vegetation maps, researchers have concluded that the Atlantic forest — once three times the size of France — has been reduced to 10 percent of its original size, largely because of development in the past century. As a result, the region’s rich flora and fauna — which included 20,000 species of plants, 700 species of birds, and 260 species of mammals — is severely threatened, with iconic creatures such as the golden lion tamarind and northern wooly spider monkey facing extinction. Seventy percent of the nation’s population — including the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro — is located in what was once the Atlantic forest. Reporting in the journal Biological Conservation, the researchers said that 80 percent of the remaining patches of forest are split into fragments of less than .5 square kilometers and that only 14 percent of the undisturbed forest is protected. Conservationists have called for the creation of reserves in the few remaining large tracts of Atlantic forest, including the Sierra do Mar mountains near Sao Paulo.