Biodiversity Hotspots
ATLANTIC FOREST
The Atlantic Forest of tropical South America boasts 20,000 plant species, 40 percent of which are endemic.
CERRADO
The Cerrado region of Brazil, comprising 21 percent of the country, is the most extensive woodland-savanna in South America.
CHILEAN WINTER RAINFALL-VALDIVIAN FOREST
A virtual continental island bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Andes Mountains, and the Atacama Desert, the Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests harbors richly endemic flora and fauna.
TROPICAL ANDES
The richest and most diverse region on Earth, the Tropical Andes region contains about a sixth of all plant life in less than 1 percent of the world’s land area.
TUMBES-CHOCÓ-MAGDALENDA
Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena is bordered by two other hotspots: Mesoamerica to the north, and the Tropical Andes to the east.
High-Biodiversity Wilderness Areas
Spanning nine South American countries, the Amazonia wilderness is unlike any other, supporting more than 40,000 species of plants, with three-quarters of them found nowhere else.
Dive headfirst off the west coast of Central and South America and you’ll discover the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape. Here, GPS and satellite technology allow us to keep a close eye on the turtles, sharks, and other marine life spanning Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador. There are plenty of reasons you should keep a watchful eye on this Seascape too.