RESERVA ECOLOGICA DE GUAPI ASSU (REGUA).

The Atlantic Forest of Brazil is considered by many people to be the most important region of the world for biodiversity and for endangered species of birds. With financial support from the UK a new reserve has been created near Guapi Assu in the municipality of Cachoeiras de Macacu, approximately 70 kms north of Rio de Janeiro. The reserve (REGUA) now owns and protects an area of over 3,000 hectares, and is working closely with neighbouring landowners who are sympathetic to our aims to extend this area either through land purchase or partnership agreements. Although most of the Atlantic Forest has been subject to extensive logging (less than 7% of the original forest remaining intact), the reserve includes a substantial area of primary forest at the higher altitudes, large areas of secondary growth and two recently re-created wetland areas.

Whilst the prime objective up to now has been to provide protection from hunting and exploitation of forest products, REGUA is now collaborating with BirdLife Brazil and local universities to establish inventories of the bird species found in the area, as well as mammals and other taxa. To date 403 bird species have been confirmed within the reserve. Click to view checklist.

One of the more challenging project objectives is to restore areas that have been damaged through poor land management in the past. The re-creation of the wetland areas on land that had previously been drained has been a remarkable success, and we are now looking to commence a reforestation programme around the neighbouring slopes. We hope that our successes at REGUA will demonstrate to other landowners that habitat creation and restoration is possible and practical in this area of Brazil.

Until now most of the funding for the project has come from a UK-based charity, the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Trust (BART), but we need the project to become self-funding. Some of the money donated to the project has been used to renovate the luxury Guapi Assu Bird Lodge situated on a small hill overlooking the new wetlands, and this lodge is now available for rental. REGUA has appointed Tropical Birding (www.tropicalbirding.com) as its sole agent for organising and leading bird tours based at the lodge. The reserve is only a 2 hour drive from Rio airport, and collection can be arranged on request.

BIRDLIFE BRAZIL & BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL

Brazil is a megadiverse country with over 1,700 bird species. The Atlantic Forest region alone is home to more than 680 of these birds, and is exceptional because almost 199 of them (30%) are endemic to the region. This makes the Atlantic Forest a "must visit" destination for birdwatchers, but also one of the highest bird conservation priorities in the world.

The Atlantic Forest region of Brazil embraces the coastal states from Piauí in the north-east to Rio Grande do Sul in southernmost Brazil, and includes the interior forests in the inland states of Minas Gerais, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Grasslands and parts of the Cerrado biomes are all represented within these states.

These coastal states were the first to be colonized in Brazil and, as a consequence, 70% of Brazilians live in this, the most developed region of the country. With such an enormous human population making demands on the natural resources, this region's natural habitats, and thus biodiversity, have been severely impacted. At least 93% of the Atlantic Forest present when Europeans arrived in the 1500s had been destroyed by the 1990s. Given the high levels of local diversity and endemism and the extensive loss of natural habitat, the probability of species extinction is high in this region without immediate and well focused conservation investments. Over 40 of the unique Atlantic Forest endemic birds are considered globally threatened, i.e. at risk of extinction.

Recognizing the critical importance of the Atlantic Forest region, BirdLife International established a Brazil Program that quickly identified 161 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in the region-sites of critical importance for the conservation of threatened and endemic bird species. Of these IBAs, 10% were identified as priorities for BirdLife action-these are the sites where species could go extinct without immediate conservation interventions.

The BirdLife Brazil Program is already active in some way (either through direct conservation action, land purchase initiatives, or monitoring efforts) at 12 of these sites, but so much more needs to be done to secure the long-term future of these, and other critical bird sites in the Atlantic Forest region.

For more information on the Atlantic Forest region, contact BirdLife International's Brazil Program or the Americas Division at birdlife@birdlife.org.ec

Furthermore, stop by www.birdlife.org for more information on the organization's work in the Americas and globally.