Parks - IUCN

The corridor of the
Serra do Mar
GEORGE GEORGIADIS AND SILVANA CAMPELLO
For 100,000 years during the last glaciation, all of the biological diversity of the southeast
Brazilian rain forest survived on the slopes of the Serra do Mar, in an area no larger
than that which is still forested today. Thus the Pleistocene refuge theory provides
strong evidence that the remaining forest of the Serra do Mar can effectively protect
all of its rich and unique biota, but only if its integrity is maintained. By implementing
effective measures to consolidate existing conservation units and maintain gene flow
between them, one of the most important ecosystems on earth can be preserved ess
entially intact for future generations.
The Serra do Mar corridor was first proposed by a coalition of conservation groups
from the northern portion of the range as a strategy to extend effective conservation
actions and integrated management to the entire ecosystem. The strategy of the
proposal combines idealism with pragmatism.
T
GEORGE GEORGIADIS AND SILVANA CAMPELLO
HE GREAT mountain range that stretches for 1300 kilometres along the southeastern
coast of Brazil is called the Serra do Mar – the Mountains of the Sea. It
is, as the name suggests, a long escarpment of ridges and valleys rising over the coast,
touching the sea in some places, towering over a narrow coastal plain in other places,
and everywhere folding upon itself to form bays and push out headlands and islands
into the South Atlantic.
The name also evokes the vital link between the ocean and the ancient forest that
covers those ridges and valleys. The Serra do Mar rises in one of the few places in the
tropics where the coastline faces Antarctica. Thus, every winter, great oceanic cold
fronts sweep into the Serra do Mar, blowing life-giving moisture into its rain forests
just when vegetation elsewhere in Brazil wilts from the dry season. As a result, the
forests of the Serra do Mar harbour a richness of life rarely seen elsewhere. Moreover,
recent studies indicate that during past
glacial periods, when the climate of Brazil
was drier and the country was mostly
covered by savannas, the Serra do Mar
remained cloaked in rain forest, moistened
by oceanic winds that shed rain as they
rose over its ridges. Evolution has thus
run uninterrupted on its slopes for perhaps
five million years, producing an
outstanding variety of plants, animals,
and unique ecological communities. As
the glaciers retreated and the climate
became wetter, eight to ten thousand
years ago, the forest spread and joined
with other forests to the north. Thus was
formed the Atlantic forest, which covered
one million square kilometres of coastal
Brazil when Europeans arrived in 1500.
25
Butress roots of
Mata Atlantica
rainforest tree in
Serra do Mar.
Photo:
Fabio Colombini.