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Retos y Oportunidades para la Conservación de Biodiversidad en el Bosque Atlántico Brasileño
Author(s) -
TABARELLI MARCELO,
PINTO LUIZ PAULO,
SILVA JOSÉ M. C.,
HIROTA MÁRCIA,
BEDÊ LÚCIO
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00694.x
Subject(s) - threatened species , deforestation (computer science) , biodiversity , geography , endangered species , agroforestry , habitat destruction , logging , endemism , atlantic forest , intact forest landscape , environmental protection , habitat , ecology , forestry , forest ecology , ecosystem , environmental science , biology , computer science , programming language
With endangered status and more than 8,000 endemic species, the Atlantic Forest is one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots.Less than 100,000 km 2 (about 7%) of the forest remains. In some areas of endemism, all that is left are immense archipelagos of tiny and widely separated forest fragments. In addition to habitat loss, other threats contributing to forest degradation include the harvesting of firewood, illegal logging, hunting, plant collecting, and invasion by alien species—all despite the legislation that exists for the forest's protection. More than 530 plants and animals occurring in the forest are now officially threatened, some at the biome level, some throughout Brazil, and some globally. Many species have not been recorded in any protected areas, indicating the need to rationalize and expand the parks system. Although conservation initiatives have increased in number and scale during the last two decades, they are still insufficient to guarantee the conservation of Atlantic Forest biodiversity. To avoid further deforestation and massive species loss in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, the challenge is to integrate the diverse regulations, public policies, new opportunities, and incentive mechanisms for forest protection and restoration and the various independent projects and programs carried out by governments and nongovernmental organizations into a single and comprehensive strategy for establishing networks of sustainable landscapes throughout the region.