The restoration of the Atlantic Forest in South America is ongoing and is currently a clear example that nature can heal itself if given the opportunity.
Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), while assessing the current status of this important process to restore biodiversity in the area, reiterated that it is a community-led action to protect the environment and defending the benefits of healthy landscapes.
The “Mata Atlântica” used to cover a vast area in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, but unfortunately five centuries of deforestation, agricultural expansion and the inexorable growth of cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have reduced it to fragments, Andersen lamented.
UNEP data shows that these three countries share the same goal: to restore 15 million hectares of this important ecological region of South America by 2050.
Stretching along the east coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul and inland to Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Argentina and Paraguay, the tropical/subtropical ecoregion is home to 148 million people and one of the most biodiverse area on earth, home to emblematic species such as the jaguar, toucan and sloth.
With information from latinapress