Water worries speed Atlantic Forest restoration

Atlantic Forest restoration projects benefit from the proximity of seedling nurseries such as this one in Itu, São Paulo state. (Photo courtesy of SOS Atlantic Forest Foundation)

The once-huge Atlantic Forest has become a key focus of ecological restoration in Brazil, thanks to its biological riches, its highly degraded state and its status as the main water source for nearly three-quarters of the country’s population. The tropical and subtropical forest survives to greater or lesser degrees in 17 mostly coastal Brazilian states, with 8% extending into Argentina and Paraguay. Its current footprint of 315,000 square kilometers (122,000 sq. miles)—an area the size of the U.S. state of New Mexico—represents only 24% of its original, pre-colonial size. Of this surviving quarter, roughly half is mature, well-preserved forest while the rest is highly fragmented and degraded. As extensive as the better-known destruction of the Amazon rainforest has been—17 to 20% cleared since pre-colonial times—the felling of Atlantic Forest has been far more severe. That’s because from the start of... Read more →