Brazil
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The original Atlantic Forest covered over 1,100,000 km2 of the national territory, stretching from Rio Grande do Norte State, in the northeast of Brazil, to Rio Grande do Sul State, with a large variable width, and in some places, crossing regions where nowadays are the border lines with Argentina and paraguay. In all its extension, it used to reach the basins of the rivers Parana, Uruguay, Paraiba do Sul, Doce, Jetiquinhonda and Sao Francisco.
Today the Atlantic Forest is reduced to less than 8% of its original area, and it is present only in some remaining sites. This drastic reduction is due to the various cycles of exploitation during the Brazilian history – gold, sugar cane and coffee – and the concentration of the biggest Brazilian cities and industrial centers of the country. Today, the region covered by the forest is responsible for almost 70% of Brazil’s GDP, it holds more than 60% of the Brazilian population, ensuring water supplies for more than 100 million people, and it has the biggest extensions of fertile soil in the country.
Biodiversity

In spite of the enormous devastation, the Atlantic Forest is still considered one of the biggest repositories of biodiversity of the planet, and for this reason, it is one of the most important and threatened biomes of the world. Its richness is so significant that the two biggest world records of botanical diversity for wooden plants were found in this biome: 454 species in a single hectare in southern Bahia and 476 species in samples of the same size in the highland of Espírito Santo. This diverse set of forest ecosystems with differentiated flower structures and compositions very diversified is explained by the climate characteristics of this region.

To have an idea of the richness of the Atlantic Forest genetic and landscape properties, you only have to know that 55% of the tree species and 40% of non-tree species present in the region are endemic, that is, they are only found in that area. Impressive species of trees are found in what is still left from this biome, such as jequitibá-rosa, which is 40 meters high and 4 meters round. There is also in this scenery other several species: pinheiro-do-paraná, cedro, figueiras, ipês, braúna, pau-brasil and some others. In the Atlantic Forest diversity there are some altitude forests, such as Serra do Mar (1,100 meters high) and Itatiaia (1,600 meters high), where there is constant fog.

Parallel to the vegetal richness, fauna is what most impresses in the region. 39% of the mammals that live in the Atlantic Forest are found exclusively in this area. Besides, most species of Brazilian endangered animals are from the Atlantic Forest, such as the golden lion tamarins, otters, jaguars, armadillos and the small blue macaws. Out of this list, opossums, tamandua, sloths, tapirs, deers, cotias, coatis and others.

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