No large tropical forest ecosystem has suffered so much loss as Mata Atlântica, also known as the Atlantic Forest, in Brazil. Some of the Atlantic Forest’s most charismatic species include the golden lion tamarin, depicted in this oil painting with a green-headed tanager, the brightly-colored bird on the left of the painting, and a channel-billed-toucan.
The gold refers to the beauty but also to the rarity of these animal species which are in danger of disappearing due to the loss of their natural habitat. the Mata Atlântica once stretched up-and-down Brazil’s coastline, and covered parts of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. Today, it survives largely in small degraded patches and protected areas. More ancient than the Amazon, being cut off from other tropical forests, the Mata Atlântica was able to evolve unique ecosystems, which harbor a large number of species found no-where else on Earth, like these three ones represented. Logging and conversion for agriculture and cattle ranches have been the primary drivers of deforestation of the Mata Atlântica which has declined by well over 90 percent.

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