When assessing the current status of this important process to restore biodiversity to this territory, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inger Andersen, said that it is an action in which local communities are participating in defense of the benefits of healthy landscapes.

The Atlantic Forest used to cover a vast area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, but unfortunately five centuries of logging, agricultural expansion and the relentless growth of cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have reduced it to fragments, she said.

Data provided by UNEP indicate that these three countries have the same goal: to restore 15 million hectares of this important South American ecological region by 2050.

South America’s Atlantic Forest is home to 148 million people and one of the richest areas on the planet in terms of biodiversity and home to emblematic species such as the jaguar, toucan and sloth.

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