Atlantic Forest

The Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot is most famous for its 25 different kinds of primates. Of these, 20 are unique to this hotspot, including the Critically Endangered northern muriquis and lion tamarins. The hotspot is also home to 20,000 different types of trees, half of which are found nowhere else.

Threats
The Atlantic Forest once stretched more than one million square kilometers across tropical South America. Today, however, it has been reduced to less than 10 percent of its original extent. Direct threats to biodiversity include logging, poaching, wildlife trade, urban and industrial development, and deforestation driven by agriculture and expansion of pastureland.

Strategy
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) focuses on the Central and Serra do Mar biodiversity conservation corridors in Brazil. The Central Corridor includes north-central Espírito Santo, a portion of northeastern Minas Gerais and southern Bahia. The Serra do Mar Corridor includes south-central Rio de Janeiro State, southeastern Minas Gerais and northeastern São Paulo State.

CEPF seeks to increase the number and size of priority conservation areas under protection and improve management in the two corridors. This goal will be accomplished through innovative public and private sector alliances and partnerships that complement existing conservation efforts in the region, such as the International Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forests.

Four strategic directions guide CEPF's approach in Brazil:
  1. stimulate landscape management initiatives led by civil society in 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
Atlantic Forest

Investment Priorities
Full Strategy
Project Database for this Region