One of the most degraded ecosystems in Brazil, the Atlantic Forest is also one of the richest and most diverse environments in the world. That is why it has been included in the biodiversity hotspots map: areas which has already lost at least 70% of its plant cover, but that account for more than 60% of all terrestrial species in the planet. “It’s around 5,000 plant varieties, many of them exclusive to the region, from which bromeliads, orchids and palms are the most abundant,” stressed botanist Carlos Alfredo Joly, from the Biology Institute of Campinas State University (Unicamp), as well as coordinator of the Biota-FAPESP Program. He spoke as part of the Biota-FAPESP Education Conference Cycle, in São Paulo, on August 22nd.
To know more about the beauty and the threats imposed to the conservation of the Atlantic Forest, watch some excerpts from the talks. Biologist André Freitas, also from Unicamp, and Flávio Jorge Ponzoni, researcher at the National Institute of Spacial Research (Inpe), were the other speakers.
Read also the coverage on Pesquisa FAPESP #211.
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