Rainforest Trust expanded theYabotí Biosphere Reserve by another 14,826 acres to complete the protected area corridor linking Moconá National Park and Esmeralda National Park in the core area of the reserve and Parque de Turbo (in Brazil, which includes the world-renowned Iguazu Falls).

The Atlantic forest once stretched unbroken from the Atlantic coast in the north of Brazil, south and inland through Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina. Today it is one of the most critically endangered ecoregions in the world, with only 7% of its once vast original forest remaining.

Long isolated from other major rainforest blocks in South America, this unique rainforest has an extremely diverse and unique mix of vegetation and forest types, with a large number of endangered and endemic plant and animal species, including marmosets and lion tamarins and the extraordinary Araucaria forests.

Fully 20% of this remaining 7% is found in the Misiones region. Rainforest Trust worked with our partner in Argentina, Fundación Biodiversidad and FuNaFu, in the buffer zone of the Yaboti Biosphere Reserve in Misiones Province, on a project that contributed to the conservation and protection of this last great relic of interior Atlantic forest. Misiones today contains 60% of the remains of the non-fragmented sectors of what is known as the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest.

Two properties, one of 4,000 acres and a second of 1,600 acres were identified as immediate priorities for protection and low-impact sustainable tourism development by Fundación Biodiversidad and FuNaFu, and their purchase was negotiated. Together these properties constitute a strategic point for a biological corridor connecting the Esmeralda, Moconá and Turvo Parks, and for sheltering four Guaraní villages.