Ecological Region

The Serra do Mar coastal forests in southeastern Brazil, an ecoregion of the tropical moist forests biome, represent the largest continuous block of montane Atlantic forest and one of the more remarkable centers of endemism in South America.

The Sierra Juarez and San Pedro Martir pine-oak forests ecoregion is located on the northern part of the Baja Peninsula in northwestern Mexico. The ecoregion covers the higher elevations of these two mountain ranges that are part of the Peninsular Ranges System.

The Sinú Valley dry forests is an ecoregion in the north of Colombia at the northwestern extreme of the Andes range. The region is known for its tremendous biodiversity richness due to its high number of species and level of endemism.

The Southern Andean steppe ecoregion is found in the higher elevations of the Chilean and Argentine Andes, the southern portion of the Andes range, and features a cold desert climate. It is part of the Montane grasslands and shrublands biome.

The Southern Andean Yungas is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in the yungas of southwestern Bolivia and northwestern Argentina. It contains what may be the last of the isolated evergreen forests resulting from Quaternary glaciations.

The Southwest Amazon moist forests are in the upper Amazon Basin, encompassing parts of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. The vast ecoregion contains some of the richest and largest tracts of intact tropical rainforest in the Amazon. Its inaccessibility has kept most of the habitat intact.

The Talamancan Montane forests ecoregion is one of Central America's most intact habitats with high species diversity. The ecoregion covers a discontinuous area within the highlands of northwestern Costa Rica and western Panama, protected by numerous parks and reserves.

The Trinidad and Tobago dry forests cover a small portion of northwest Trinidad and the far northern end of the island of Tobago as well as some of the smaller offshore islands. However, this ecoregion comprises only about 5% of the island nation.

The Trinidad and Tobago moist forests cover most of the land area of Trinidad and Tobago, the most southerly of the Lesser Antilles. However, small portions of the islands around river estuaries and coastal lowlands are mangroves or dry forests. As a result, species diversity is very high.

The Upper Paraná Atlantic forests, or "Selva Paranaense," is an ecoregion of the tropical moist forests biome and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. The ecoregion stretches across the borders of southern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina.