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Although reduced to 5% of it's original cover, the Atlantic
Rain Forest remains of extreme importance. For the people who
live within its domain - in cities and villages as well as native
Indian communities - it regulates the flow of water resources,
safeguards and revitalizes the soil's fertility, regulates the
climate and protects the peaks and slopes of the plateaus and
escarpments of the mountain ranges. In addition to preserving
and integrating an immense historical and cultural heritage,
the region also bears witness to peoples lost in remote time,
in the middens (archaeological monuments) that maintain the
history of tribes that lived in the region thousands of years
ago. The Atlantic Rain Forest is a biological reserve, an environmental
heritage site for all humanity because of the area's enormous
biodiversity and the vast amount of plant and animal species,
many of which are endemic to the region. This means that in
any given area the Atlantic Forest contains more bacteria, microscopic
fungus, protozoa and algae than in an equivalent area of European
or North America soil. This in turn signifies an immense contribution
to medicine, agriculture, and industry and to the ecological
balance of the planet .
The Atlantic Rain Forest
domain extends along the Brazilian coast from the state of Rio
Grande do Norte, south to the state of Rio Grande do Sul and
has witnessed a geological history that includes the formation
of glaciers, lakes, deserts and volcanoes and has past through
innumerable phases of erosion. These phenomena have resulted
in the formation of some of Brazil's most spectacular scenery,
including the caverns of The Ribeira Valley, the escarpments
of the Serra dos Órgaos range, the Iguaçu Falls, and the eroded
sandstone rock formations of Vila Velha in the state of Minas
Gerais. |
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The
vegetation of the Atlantic coastal forest is exuberant, dominated
by tall trees with the largest reaching heights of over 30 meters.
Beneath these grow layers of smaller trees; their trunks covered
with mosses and lichens, creepers and vast numbers of epiphytes,
such as orchids and bromeliads. |
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