The Atlantic forest now covers only 8% of its historical range

Despite being one of the most diverse and biologically rich forests in the world, the Atlantic forest in South America is unfortunately also one of the most threatened. Only about eight percent of its original cover remains and its total area has been dramatically reduced to just less than 100,000 square kilometres. If we flip this figure; compared to the Amazon which has lost around 20% of its forest, the Atlantic forest, or Mata Atlântica as it is also known, has seen a staggering 92% decline. To make matters worse, what remains of the forest is severely fragmented and only two percent is still considered to be primary, or pristine, forest.

Only 2% of the Atlantic forest is now considered to be primary forest

The Atlantic forest extends along Brazil’s eastern coast, into Paraguay and northeast Argentina. It is home to thousands of species that are not found anywhere else in the world; for example, no fewer than 8,000 of the total 20,000 or more plant species are totally unique to the Atlantic forest, including over half of the forest’s trees. Examples include the Endangered Pau brasil and the Vulnerable Brazilian rosewood tree. But it’s not just the plants: there are many mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates that are found exclusively in the Atlantic forest. As more of the forest is degraded and fragmented by deforestation, these species are increasingly at risk of extinction.

Deforestation in the Atlantic forest is a result of human settlement, dating back centuries to when Europeans arrived in South America and began to clear forest to make way for timber and cattle ranches, as well as to grow crops such as sugarcane, coffee and cocoa. In more recent years land use has shifted towards soy cultivation and pine, tobacco and eucalyptus plantations. The spread of invasive species and the ever-looming presence of climate change are also playing their part, providing competition for food and resources, and decreasing the resiliency of species to changes in their environment.

Brazilian rainforest cleared for cattle ranching

Of the 100,000 remaining square kilometres, only approximately 23,800 square kilometres are under protection; less than 2% of the forest’s historic range. There are, however, also a range of conservation initiatives working to protect and restore parts of the Atlantic forest.

One such reforestation project by The Nature Conservancy began in 2008 with the ambitious aim of planting one billion trees in Brazil’s Atlantic forest within seven years. If successful, the ‘Plant a Billion Trees’ project will repopulate 2.5 million acres of land, increasing the forest’s significance as a carbon sink that will potentially be able to remove four million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year. As numbers currently stand, 12,574,689 trees have been planted, with one tree planted per dollar donated. Despite being far from the target, this level of reforestation is still significant.

The Nature Conservancy are not alone in their bid to reforest areas of the Atlantic forest. The Alstom Foundation’s project aims to promote long-term sustainability in the remaining forest, and to reconnect fragmented areas which will help to support wildlife. Its target is to restore 15 million hectares of degraded lands by the year 2040, amounting to 12 percent of the forest’s original ecosystem.

The jaguar and many other species could soon be wiped out in the Atlantic forest

While we could go ahead and list every project working to reforest areas of the Atlantic forest, the important message to take from this is why these collective efforts are significant. Many species are on the verge of being lost from the Mata Atlântica, including the jaguar, lowland tapir and giant anteater, and many more species will continue to decline if further action is not taken. Large numbers of these species occur nowhere else in the world, and they require large areas of connected forest to survive and reproduce.

With climate change on the tip of everyone’s tongue, restoration in this forest could serve to provide a much-needed carbon sink, able to remove and store huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Reforestation projects are also able to help local communities to build their knowledge of soil use, conservation and land management, enabling them to protect their land in the future and encouraging them to undertake their own forest restoration, thereby continuing reforestation efforts in the long-term.

Find out more about the Atlantic forest on ARKive’s Atlantic forest ecoregion page.

Find out more about reforestation in the Atlantic forest on ARKive’s reforestation topic page.

Become a conservation professional and help plant trees in the Atlantic forest with Team WILD!

Kaz Armour, ARKive Text Author

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Reforestation in the Atlantic forest, Brazil

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Large mammals are being lost from Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest much faster than expected, according to a recent study.

A jaguar, one of the species included in the study

The study, undertaken by scientists from Brazil and the UK, looked at 18 mammal species in 196 forest fragments, and compared their current populations to estimates of their population densities before Europeans colonised the region about 500 years ago.

The results of the study, published in the journal PLoS One, showed that mammals are being lost from forest fragments at least twice as fast as previous estimates suggested.

Staggering declines

Of over 3,500 mammal populations estimated to have originally lived in the study area, only about 22% remain today. Among the species being lost are large, charismatic mammals such as the jaguar, lowland tapir, northern muriqui and giant anteater, while the white-lipped peccary has been completely wiped out in the region.

Only 3 of the 18 species studied – two small monkeys and an armadillo – were still present across the whole area.

“We uncovered a staggering process of local extinctions of mid-sized and large mammals,” said Dr Gustavo Canale of the State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), one of the authors of the study.

The white-lipped peccary has now become extinct in the area of Atlantic forest surveyed

Fragmented forest

The Atlantic forest is one of the most diverse and biologically rich forests in the world, with many of its species found nowhere else. However, it is also one of the world’s most highly threatened ecosystems, with only 8% of its original cover remaining.

Centuries of logging, urbanisation and clearance for ranches, agriculture and plantations have left only small fragments of forest intact, and what remains is often degraded. Forest fragments are also highly accessible to hunters, as well as being vulnerable to fires and to ‘edge effects’, which include increased exposure to winds and drought.

Lowland tapir

According to Dr Canale, the presence of the mammals in the study could not be predicted by the size of the forest fragment, with even large patches of forest lacking many species. On average, only 4 of the target mammal species were found in each forest fragment, and none of the sites studied contained all 18 species.

Previous estimates of mammal populations assumed that large areas of forest would be able to support more species, but failed to take into account the combined effects of multiple threats.

“You might expect forest fragments with a relatively intact canopy structure to still support high levels of biodiversity,” explained Carlos Peres, another of the authors of the study. “Our study demonstrates that this is rarely the case, unless these fragments are strictly protected from hunting pressure.”

Nine-banded armadillo, one of the only mammals that still occurs across the entire study area

Vital protection

These findings, which suggest that even large forest fragments are not enough to save many mammals from local extinction, raise concerns for tropical forests around the world, many of which are becoming increasingly fragmented.

The study found that mammals only fared better in official protected areas such as national parks, where forest fragments are large and hunting is banned. The team therefore recommends that more protected areas are needed and that their protection should be strictly enforced.

Northern muriqui, another species included in the study

Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of the Atlantic forest currently has protected status, and the Brazilian government is under pressure from farmers to reduce forest protection. A final vote on changes to the government’s Forest Code is expected by the end of August.

According to Jean Paul Metzger, an ecologist at the University of São Paulo who was not involved in the study, “The new bill doesn’t explicitly stimulate deforestation, but it doesn’t impose forest restoration either. That means protected areas are likely to remain isolated, which in turn may mean more extinctions in the future.”

Read more on this story at Nature News & Comment and Mongabay.

Read more about the Atlantic forest on ARKive.

View photos and videos of Atlantic forest mammals on ARKive.

Liz Shaw, ARKive Species Text Author

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