Atlantic Forest 

The Atlantic Forest of South America is among the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots. Once stretching more than 1.2 million square kilometers across Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, the forest retains only 8 percent of its original extent and much of it is found in only tiny and isolated fragments.

Despite this, the Atlantic Forest still maintains extraordinary levels of biological wealth. It’s also home to approximately 70 percent of Brazil’s 176 million people.

Our support focuses on the Central and Serra do Mar biodiversity conservation corridors in Brazil. These two corridors are distinguished centers of unique species and were identified as top conservation priorities by the Ecological Corridors Project developed by the Brazil Ministry of Environment’s International Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forests (PPG-7).

The Central Corridor, which covers approximately 12 million hectares across the state of Espírito Santo and southern Bahia, holds one of the world records for woody plant diversity with up to 458 tree species found in a single hectare of forest in southern Bahia. This is roughly equivalent to one quarter of all plant species in Great Britain.

The Serra do Mar Corridor, which includes 12.6 million hectares from Rio de Janeiro to Paraná, contains the largest remaining block of Atlantic Forest, formed by slopes and mountain tops typical of the Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira, and adjacent flat lowlands.

Guided by an ecosystem profile developed for this region, we sought to promote synergies in investments and conservation actions by targeting innovative public/private partnerships — moving away from supporting isolated initiatives to help build long-term strategies in the Central and Serra do Mar biodiversity conservation corridors. Four strategic directions guided our approach:

1. Stimulate landscape management initiatives led by civil society in the Central and Serra do Mar corridors.
2. Improve management of existing and future public protected areas through targeted civil society efforts.
3. Increase the number of private protected areas through civil society efforts.
4. Create an Action Fund to improve civil society identification and management of critical areas of habitat.

In 2008, we began implementing a fifth strategic direction to reinforce and sustain the gains made possible by our initial $8 million investment. This new strategic direction includes $2.4 million in grants to selected organizations based on a consolidation plan drawing from the ecosystem profile and an assessment of our previous investment.