Venezuelan Coast (NT23) Venezuelan Coast (NT23) Venezuelan Coast (NT23) Venezuelan Coast (NT23) Venezuelan Coast (NT23) Venezuelan Coast (NT23) Venezuelan Coast (NT23)

Image credis: (1) Courtesy of Juan Pablo Bottaro (2) Radoslaw Labno, Creative Commons (3) Juan Carlo Castillo, Creative Commons (4) Creative Commons (5) Creative Commons (6) Courtesy of Adam Timpf (7) Katherine Gomez, Creative Commons (8) Creative Commons

Venezuelan Coast bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The protection goal is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.

  • 23,719
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 12
    Number of Ecoregions
  • 48%
    Protection Target
  • 8
    Protection Level

The Venezuelan Coast bioregion, located in the Southern America (Neotropical) realm, runs the length of South America’s Caribbean coastline. It is largely dominated by dry coastal scrublands interspersed with pockets of moist tropical forest, as well as dry tropical forest and the ice-capped Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta plateau, which many indigenous tribes believe to be the “beating heart” of the continent. The bioregion contains 11 terrestrial ecoregions – Catatumbo Moist Forests (447), Cordillera de la Costa Montane Forests (456), Santa Marta Montane Forests (499), Lara-Falcón Dry Forests (536), Maracaibo Dry Forests (539), Sinú Valley Dry Forests (546), Santa Marta Páramo (594), Araya and Paria Xeric Scrub (597), Guajira-Barranquilla Xeric Scrub (602), La Costa Xeric Shrublands (603), Paraguana Xeric Scrub (606) – as well as Amazon-Orinoco-Southern Caribbean Mangroves (611). The total area of this bioregion is nearly 24 million hectares, not including adjacent marine areas.

The Venezuelan Coast bioregion is part of the Upper South America subrealm and is made up of 12 ecoregions: (1) Guajira-Barranquilla Xeric Scrub (2) Araya and Paria Xeric Scrub (3) Sinú Valley Dry Forests (4) Santa Marta Montane Forests (5) Santa Marta Páramo (6) Maracaibo Dry Forests (7) Catatumbo Moist Forests (8) Paraguana Xeric Scrub (9) Lara-Falcón Dry Forests (10) Cordillera de la Costa Montane Forests (11) La Costa Xeric Shrublands (12) Amazon-Orinoco-Southern Caribbean Mangroves.

One Earth is dedicated to mobilizing philanthropic capital to protect the ecosystems and peoples of Southern America. Visit the Project Marketplace to explore projects in this realm that need your support. Learn more about each of the Venezuelan Coast ecoregions below.

Baird's tapir

Iconic Species

Baird's tapir
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