Project Summary

The Atlantic forest once stretched unbroken from the Atlantic coast in the north of Brazil, south and inland through Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina. Today it is one of the most critically endangered ecoregions in the world, with only 7% of its once vast original forest remaining.

Long isolated from other major rainforest blocks in South America, this unique rainforest has an extremely diverse and unique mix of vegetation and forest types, with a large number of endangered and endemic plant and animal species, including marmosets and lion tamarins and the extraordinary Araucaria forests.

Fully 20% of this remaining 7% is found in the Misiones region. We are currently working with our partner in Argentina, Fundación Frontera Verde, in the buffer zone of the Yaboti Biosphere Reserve in Misiones Province, on a project that will contribute to the conservation and protection of this last great relic of interior Atlantic forest. Misiones today contains 60% of the remains of the non-fragmented sectors of what is known as the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest. If the adjoining Brazilian parks of Iguazu and Turvo are included, this sector embraces fully 80% of the non-fragmented sector.

Two properties, one of 4,000 hectares and a second of 1,600 hectares have been identified as immediate priorities for protection and low-impact sustainable tourism development by Fundación Frontera Verde, and their purchase has now been negotiated. Together these properties constitute a strategic point for a biological corridor connecting the Esmeralda, Moconá and Turvo Parks, and for sheltering four Guaraní villages.

We are urgently pursuing the acquisition of these strategic properties to maintain biodiversity connectivity and create a major conservation corridor. FFV has defined an optimal protected area of 10,000 ha to ensure a viable and self-sustaining biodiversity conservation sink, which is our ultimate goal. Land prices are currently favorable at only $100 per acre, but the pressures to clear this extraordinary forest for logging and cattle grazing are pressing.

Please join us in saving this highly threatened core of one of the world's most unique and endangered rainforests.