Legal Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica Legal): integrating biogeography to public policies towards the conservation of the biodiversity hotspot

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest (AF) is one of the most biodiverse and threatened biomes on the planet, but the existence of two official boundaries (AF Biome and Domain – AF Law) causes uncertainties, with consequences for public policies and the conservation of remnants. In order to understand the biogeography and its influence for protection of the AF, the areas of the two boundaries and the overlap with states and ecoregions they occupy were compared. Our results, supported by the literature, indicate that the Legal boundary is broader and more representative of AF’s current and evolutionary heterogeneity and diversity, and provides a more adequate legal basis for its conservation and sustainable use, especially in the northeast region, where the biggest difference between both limits were encountered. Thus, the term Legal Atlantic Forest should be increasingly used, in order to reinforce the full application of laws governing the protection and sustainable use of the biome.

High Added-Value by-Products from Biomass: A Case Study Unveiling Opportunities for Strengthening the Agroindustry Value Chain

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ATLANTIC SPATIAL: a dataset of landscape, topographic, hydrologic and anthropogenic metrics for the Atlantic Forest

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Características reprodutivas de plantas em florestas de vegetação costeira tropical do Nordeste do Brasil

“…No Brasil, a floresta tropical pode ser dividida em sub-regiões biogeográficas, que abrigam um maior número de espécies endêmicas e apresentam grande sobreposição quanto a distribuição, como os Brejos Nordestinos, Pernambuco, São Francisco, Diamantina, Bahia e Serra do Mar; além das áreas de transição como as Florestas Interioranas e as Florestas com Araucária (Silva & Casteleti 2003). Essas áreas têm elevada riqueza, além de contemplar a maioria das espécies endêmicas, incluindo plantas, borboletas, anfíbios, aves e mamíferos (Tabarelli et al 2010); sendo fundamental para a manutenção dos serviços ambientais deste hotspot de biodiversidade (Cunha et al 2019).…”