South American Coastal Deserts (NT8) South American Coastal Deserts (NT8)

Image credits: (1) Courtesy of Edo Janssen (2) Courtesy of Javier Rubilar

South American Coastal Deserts bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The conservation target 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.

  • 29,072
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 2
    Number of Ecoregions
  • 20%
    Protection Target
  • 2
    Protection Level

The South American Coastal Deserts bioregion, located in the Southern America (Neotropical) realm, occupies a narrow band west of the Andes Mountains, running along the Peruvian and northern Chilean coast. It contains two arid ecoregions – Atacama Desert (598), Sechura Desert (608) – and adjacent marine areas in the Pacific Ocean. The land area of this bioregion is approximately 29 million hectares.

The South American Coastal Deserts bioregion is part of the Andes & Pacific Coast subrealm and is made up of two ecoregions: (1) Sechura Desert (2) Atacama Desert.

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 South American Coastal Deserts ecoregions below.

Sechuran fox

Iconic Species

Sechuran fox
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