Natural Region

Páramo is a neotropical high mountain biome. Also referred to as Andean Moorland, this grassland ecosystem is found mainly in the northwest corner of South America: in the upper Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Magellanic Steppe, is a semiarid scrub plateau covering nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. It is the largest desert in Argentina and is bounded by the Patagonian Andes and the country of Chile to the west.

Peruvian Amazonia (La Selva), is the area between the eastern foothills of the Peruvian Andes and the rainforests of the Amazon Basin. It is here that the lower slopes of the western Andes merge with the heavily forested tropical lowlands. 

Puna is a cold, high-elevation grassland region of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome. It is prevalent in the central Andes from northern Peru through western Bolivia into northern Chile and Argentina. Much of the region lies on the Altiplano Plateau.

The Rupununi is a natural region in southwest Guyana, bordering the Brazilian Amazon. It is divided into the northern and southern Rupununi by the Kanuku Mountains. The Rapununi River flows through the region before joining with the Essequibo River on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Sonoran Desert, also called Desierto de Altar, is an arid region covering 120,000 sq mi. This North American desert ecoregion covers large parts of northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur, as well as parts of the southwestern United States.

Sumapaz Páramo is considered the largest moorland in the world. The Sumapaz National Natural Park protects this high mountain grassland ecosystem, located in the Altiplano Cundibohyacense mountain range, within the Colombian Andes.

The Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena hotspot includes the tropical forests of the Pacific coast of northwestern South America as well as the Galápagos Islands. Stretching from southern Panama to northern Peru, this biodiversity hotspot includes a large variety of endemic species and habitats.

The Yungas is a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains within Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina. This humid, subtropical natural region is a transitional zone between the Andean highlands and the eastern forests.