The Bahia interior forests is an

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...

of eastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is part of the larger

Atlantic forests The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

complex, and lies between the

Bahia coastal forests The Bahia coastal forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of eastern Brazil, part of the larger Atlantic Forest region. Setting The Bahia coastal forests occupy a belt approximately wide along the Atlantic coast of eastern Bra ...

and the dry shrublands and savannas of Brazil's interior.

Setting

The Bahia interior forests cover an area of , extending across portions of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest ...

Espirito Santo ''Espirito'' (Brazilian for "Spirit") is the second album by Lawson Rollins. Rollins composed all of the music and co-produced the album with Persian-American musician and producer Shahin Shahida (of Shahin & Sepehr) and multi-platinum producer ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literall ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

, and

Sergipe Sergipe (), officially State of Sergipe, is a state of Brazil. Located in the Northeast Region along the Atlantic coast of the country, Sergipe is the smallest state in Brazil by geographical area at , larger only than the Federal District. S ...

states. The Bahia interior forests lie inland from the

, which extend approximately inland from the coast. The Bahia interior forests extend north to the

São Francisco River The São Francisco River (, ) is a large river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil (after the Amazon, the Paraná and t ...

, where they lie much closer to the coast, and are bounded on the west by the dry

Caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

shrublands. Moving south, the forests extend further inland to the Rio Paraíba do Sul, Rio Preto, and

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio ...

, which form the boundary with the

Alto Paraná Atlantic forests The Alto Paraná Atlantic forests, also known as the Paraná-Paraíba interior forests, is an ecoregion of the tropical moist forests biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. It is located in southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, ...

to the southwest.

Flora

Atlantic forest in

, interior

and southern

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist att ...

, according to

IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental informati ...

, consists of a semi-deciduous or deciduous forest. In this ecoregion is found a highly threatened spicies, the "Brazilian rosewood" ''(

Dalbergia nigra ''Dalbergia nigra'', commonly known as the Bahia rosewood, jacarandá-da-Bahia, Brazilian rosewood, Rio rosewood, jacarandá-do-brasil, pianowood, caviúna, graúna, jacarandá-una or obuina is a species of legume in the family Fabaceae. Descr ...

)''.

Fauna

This ecoregion is poorly known. Recently, a new primate species was described, the Coimbra Filho's titi, and other primate, the

Northern muriqui The northern muriqui (''Brachyteles hypoxanthus)'' is one of two species of muriqui. They are also known as woolly spider monkey because they exhibit the woollen pelt of woolly monkeys and the long prehensile tail of spider monkeys. Muriquis ar ...

is endemic of Bahia interior forests ecoregion.

Conservation and threats

Bahia interior forest is one of the most modified ecoregions in Atlantic forest region. Most forests remnants has less than 10 km², and even these are currently under strong pressure from anthropogenic activities, as fires, illegal deforestation and predatory hunting. Less than 2 percent of Bahia interior forests are protected as conservation units. The largest forest remnant of this ecoregion is the

Rio Doce State Park The Rio Doce State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual do Rio Doce) is a state park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It protects a large remnant of Atlantic Forest, and includes a system of lagoons rich in species of native fish. Location The Rio Do ...

, with 359 km² of area.

References

{{Reflist Atlantic Forest Neotropical tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Ecoregions of Brazil Forests of Brazil . Environment of Bahia Environment of Espírito Santo Environment of Minas Gerais Environment of Rio de Janeiro (state) Environment of Sergipe * * * * Geography of Bahia Geography of Espírito Santo Geography of Minas Gerais Geography of Rio de Janeiro (state) Geography of Sergipe