Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean is the richest region of the planet in terms of its biological diversity. Within the dazzling array of the region's ecosystems lie roughly a third of the world's mammals and reptiles, two-fifths of the world's birds, and almost half of the world's amphibians. This diversity is sustained by the abundance of its ecosystems and wealth in natural resources and is also demonstrated in the mosaic of cultures and people that live there. The environment of Latin America and the Caribbean also reflects the interaction between human activities and natural processes, both past and present. The Latin America and the Caribbean Atlas of our Changing Environment shows environmental changes based on remotely sensed images acquired by different satellites over many years, or a few days in some cases, and through images, maps, tables, graphs and text, it presents a picture of where Latin America and the Caribbean has been, and where it is now.