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The Atlantic Rainforest once extended from well below the Tropic of Capricorn, encompassing about one million square kilometers. But in the 500 years of occupancy by white man, about 95% of the forest has been destroyed. The urgency to conserve this remainder combined with the intrinsic biological diversity and endemism of the forest has led international conservation agencies to proclaim the Atlantic Rainforest a Biodiversity Hotspot. There are an estimated 10 thousand species of plants in the Atlantic Rainforest. Around 2.300 species of orchid have been reported to occur in Brazil. From this total, 80% are found in the Atlantic Rainforest. |
Although
direct deforestation is the main threat to many orchids (and to conservation
in general), commercial trade associated with indiscriminate extraction
of orchids (and other organisms) is very worring. Brazilian law, coupled
with international threaties, is very strict in the control of extration
from the wild, but its implementation is difficult, especially in remote
areas.
| "Orchids from the Atlantic Rainforest" is a partnership between Orquidário Quinta do Lago (RJ) and the artist Sylvia Amélia de Hungria Machado. Their main objectives are: the raising of awareness about the richness of the Atlantic Rainforest's flora and contribution to a conservation project related to this ecosystem. Part of the profits from a serie of eight post cards with brazilian orchids painted by Sylvia Amélia is dedicated to the project: "Floresta Atlântica: Macé de Cima". In Macaé de Cima, Nova Friburgo county, Rio de Janeiro, there is a rich remnant of high-altitude Atlantic Rainforest, where 270 orchid species are known to grow. |
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