There Is More to Biodiversity than the Tropical Rain Forests

The conservation community has focused its attention on the destruction of tropical rainforests, while other ecosystems are disappearing at as rapid a rate as the rainforests. Cases in point are South America's semi-arid and arid open vegetation formations such as the cerrado, the Gran Chaco, and the matorral formations. The flora and fauna of these stressed ecosystems are described. Not only is habitat destruction proceeding rapidly in these open vegetation formations, but also little land is being set aside in parks and reserves. It would be a grave mistake to push for the development of the Chaco in lieu of the Amazon or other