Last Forest Frontiers

Development Project
Executive Producer: Ana Cristina Henríquez

According to Global Forest Watch, half of the forests that originally covered our planet have been cleared and about one-third of them are fragmented into areas too small to sustain the species they currently support in the long term.

Large tracts of ecologically intact natural forests with relatively low degrees of disturbance – forest frontiers – are valuable refuges for biodiversity, where natural processes will continue to generate and maintain biological resources on which we all depend.

These forest frontiers also provide a series of environmental services, such as watershed protection and climate stabilization, which make the planet habitable.

Venezuela has been identified by the World Resources Institute as one of the 12 countries that globally conserve 90% of the remaining forest frontiers on the planet, most of which are concentrated south of the Orinoco River, in the Guayana region.

The forests of the Guyana region (PDF 4.3 Mb) contain more than half (58%) of the wildlife species known in Venezuela, which include all the orders and families recorded in the country. Half of the region’s wildlife species depend on the forest and are therefore vulnerable to deforestation or degradation of their primary habitat.

The colonization of forests by small farmers and miners represents the greatest pressure on forest ecosystems in the Guyana region. Current logging and mining practices promote forest degradation and, where population pressure is high, increase deforestation.

If adequate measures are not taken, these forest ecosystems could disappear before scientists have a chance to study them and humanity has a chance to enjoy them, affecting life on Earth forever.