Tropical Andes

From snow- capped volcanoes to forested slopes, the Andes ranks as one of the world's two "hyper-hotspots." In Peru, one biologist found 43 ant species living in a single tree as many as in all of the British Isles. But expansion of the agricultural frontier, as well as logging, road-building, mining, fossil fuel exploitation and colonization, are shrinking natural areas. "These countries have the potential to be the world's biological superpower," says Eduardo Figueroa, who heads a new IDB program to forge a biodiversity strategy for the region.

The Darién and Choco regions of Panama and Colombia, along with western Ecuador comprise a relatively small area with a disproportionately large number of endemic species. Panama's Dari‚n province is the focus of an innovative IDB program to protect vast forest preserves, legalize land tenure for indigenous communities, and improve social and economic conditions in this poverty-stricken area. International conservation organizations, civil society groups and local communities helped to design the program.

Mesoamerica

Widespread conversion of rain forest to cattle pasture in Central America in the 1970s to spur beef exports gave rise to the expression "rain forest hamburger." But despite the destruction, an impressive number of habitats remain intact. In Guatemala's Pet‚n Forest, the IDB is financing a project that gives local communities an economic stake in biodiversity preservation.

The Caribbean

While tropical islands are famous for their marine life, they are also hotbeds for terrestrial endemic species. Despite its small land area, the Caribbean has more unique reptile species than any other biodiversity hotspot. But the islands are also highly vulnerable because they are small and accessible.

Atlantic forest

Brazil's "other" rain forest, this great swath of trees once covered more than a million square km from Recife in the north to the border with Uruguay. Today only 5 percent of the original forest has survived urban and agricultural expansion. Some 54 percent of the region's trees and 80 percent of its primates including the golden lion tamarin are found there and nowhere else. Through Brazil's National Environmental Fund, the IDB is helping nongovernmental groups to work with local communities to save remaining forested areas.

Brazil's Cerrado

Natural habitats in this savanna are rapidly falling victim to high tech agriculture, fire and invasion by exotic species. Endangered species include Lear's macaw and the Brazilian three-banded armadillo. The IDB is financing a network of private reserves in the Cerrado as well as a social development program at Serra da Capivara that protects the caatinga ecosystem and galleries of ancient rock art.

While this temperate region lacks the species richness of many tropical areas, it boasts a very high number of endemic species. One notable ecosystem, the vine-draped ruil forest, was reduced by more than half between 1981 and 1991, mainly due to expansion of plantations of the exotic Monterey pine. Only fragments of the original forest remain, and of these, only 45 hectares have been granted formal protection. At the current rate of deforestation, it is estimated that the ruil forest will disappear as a recognizable biome in this decade.

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