N J Collar/BirdLife Flat lowland forest covers a tiny fraction of its original extent in South America's Atlantic Forest Zoom In

A pragmatic guide for action to save Brazil's Atlantic forests

22-03-2006

Brazil has more globally threatened birds than any other country on Earth. Of the 111 species at risk of extinction, 98 live in Brazil’s Atlantic forest. But the Atlantic forest is already the most seriously reduced habitat in Brazil, and the last remnants are vanishing fast.

Now a groundbreaking book from BirdLife International describes the 163 most important sites for birds in the 15 Brazilian states that contain Atlantic forest. The book Áreas Importantes para a Conservação das Aves no Brasil (Important Bird Areas in Brazil), with text in Portuguese and English, is the first in a series which will ultimately describe all the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) of Brazil.

Published on 22 March 2006 by SAVE Brasil (BirdLife in Brazil), the book will be launched during the Conference of the Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Centro de Convenções Expotrade in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.

The book also covers three other habitats found in the 15 states: cerrado, caatinga and pampas.

Brazil’s Atlantic forest includes nine Endemic Bird Areas, home to species found nowhere else. In one state alone, Bahia, 33 restricted-range species are found in the Atlantic forest. Since 1994, 15 previously unknown endemic species have been discovered, hinting at the still unexplored riches of this fast-vanishing habitat.

The sites vary in size from around 600 hectares to more than half-a-million hectares. In total, they cover three per cent of the land area of the 15 states.

"The solution is not just to create new protected areas, but to manage existing ones more effectively." —Jaqueline Goerck, SAVE Brasil

While 73% are in protected areas or private reserves, the remaining 27% have no official protection. But Jaqueline Goerck, SAVE Brasil’s Director says that many officially protected areas of Atlantic forest suffer severe habitat degredation and hunting, and have lost bird species in recent years. "The solution is not just to create new protected areas, but to manage existing ones more effectively," she says.

With this in mind, BirdLife International and SAVE Brasil were determined that this book should not be just another exercise in identifying priority areas for conservation, but should a pragmatic guide for action.

"Some areas are considered irreplaceable, since they contain the largest proportion of one or more species whose extinction is imminent," said Jaqueline Goerck. Ten per cent (16) sites have been chosen as priority areas for action. SAVE Brasil is already working at seven of these, projects are at initial stages in another three, and two more are scheduled for 2006.