header: Latin America and Caribbean WWF logo
line F o r e s t s   F o r   L i f e

Landscape

Stretching from Mexico in the north to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, the Latin America and Caribbean region encompasses 33 countries and extraordinary biological wealth - from deserts to forests, oceans to coral reefs, mountains to mangroves. The legendary Amazon rainforest alone nurtures some of the richest plant and animal communities on earth. Since 1962, WWF has supported more than a thousand conservation initiatives in over 30 of this region's countries. At present, the major threats facing forests here are commercial logging, conversion to other land uses, and mineral exploitation - the forests of Central America are being cleared faster than anywhere else in the world, including the Amazon where deforestation has actually increased.

WWF is countering these threats through a variety of programmes in key hotspot countries of the region - promoting better forest management practices through independent certification, advocating improved forest policies, strengthening protected area system management, partnering indigenous organisations in their fight to save their forest heritage, and developing innovative income-generating programmes which support forest conservation. These initiatives, undertaken with partner organisations, seek to assist local people to effectively manage and benefit from their own natural resources.

[ Chile ]   [ Brazil ]

line F o r e s t   F a c t s
Pale leaf

Land area of Latin America and Caribbean region 2,016,413,000 ha
Red line
Area of forest and other woodland 1,259,717,000 ha
Red line
Annual change in forest cover Ð 8,400,000 ha
Red line
Number of WWF forest projects 53
Red line
1996 expenditure Sfr 7,730,348
Red line
1997 budget Sfr 9,442,479
Red line
Number of certified forests 6
Red line
Coverage 251,046 ha
Red line
Number of protected areas 581
Red line
Coverage 106,779,200 ha
Red line
C O N T E N T S ----> line