Chapter 2: State and Trends
Figure 2.5.6: Primary forests in five mega-diverse countries in LAC.
Peru
Ecuador Venezuela Mexico Brazil
65 836 73 973
12 422 12 547
45 749 46 683
33 020 66 040 202 351 493 538
Andean páramos are important ecosystems from a biodiversity perspective. Approximately 60 per cent of their species are endemic. They are also major suppliers of water for cities (e.g. Quito, Bogota and Cali), agriculture, industries, and for hydropower in the higher Andes (Buytaert et al. 2007). Over the past three decades, these ecosystems have been transformed and fragmented (Fearnside 2013). In 2008, the páramo covered 60 per cent of its original extent in its northern range (Cuesta and De Bievre 2008).
km2 Primary forest Source: FAO 2015c
Forested areas are recovering in other sub-regions; in the Caribbean for the period 2010 to 2015 forests expanded at a rate of 900 square kilometres per year, mainly as a result of the abandonment of agricultural lands, as in the case of Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Cuba (Álvarez-Berríos et al. 2013).
The state of the forests influences their capacity to support biodiversity - primary forests often boast a higher number of species than secondary forests (Barlow et al. 2007). In 2015, 41 per cent Brazil´s forests were primary (16 per cent of global primary forests); Mexico 50 per cent; and Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador reported values about 89, 98 and 99 per cent respectively (FAO 2015c) (Figure 2.5.6). Countries with lower proportions of primary forests in 2015 were El Salvador (2 per cent), Argentina (6 per cent) and Grenada (12 per cent).
Total forest area
Temperate grasslands outside the Andean region are some of the richest grasslands in the world (Baldi et al. 2008; Miñarro et al. 2008). In the pampas and campos, up to 550 species of grasses have been described. However, the expansion of the agriculture frontier is causing habitat loss and fragmentation (Miñarro et al. 2008); in 2008, only about 30 per cent of original Argentine pampas still covered the region. The Brazilian Cerrado, covering about 24 percent of Brazil’s land area, is a woodland savannah ecosystem which boasts high biodiversity (Solbrig et al. 1996). It is the second largest eco-region in LAC, and holds about 5 per cent of global biodiversity, but this ecosystem has been undergoing transformation. By 2008, it had lost about 47.84 per cent of its original range of 2.04 million square kilometres (MMA- Brazil 2015b). For details about grassland transformation in the region see Section 2.4 Land.
Thirty-one per cent of LAC´s population lives in drylands, which cover about 25 per cent of the region (UNCCD 2002). These areas, which include hyper-arid and arid deserts and sub-humid forests, are dominated by biodiversity- rich ecosystems. About 1.2 million of square kilometres of drylands are desertified in LAC, it is, about 18.8 per cent of regional drylands (Zika and Erb 2009). Besides its social and economic impacts, many affected areas in the region coincide with areas relevant for their biodiversity (e.g. Mexican and Peruvian drylands and sub-humid forests). More details on land degradation can be found in Section 2.4.
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