Valdivian Temperate Rainforest

A temperate rainforest ecoregion of about 248,100 square kilometers along the west coast of southern South America, straddling Chile and Argentina between roughly 37 and 48 degrees south latitude, between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. Orographic rainfall from westerly winds delivers 1,000 to 6,000 millimeters of rain a year, sustaining evergreen broadleaf trees and conifers over dense bamboo and fern understories. The alerce conifer, among the longest-lived trees on Earth, the pudu, the world's smallest deer, and the monito del monte, an arboreal marsupial found nowhere else, all depend on the intact forest, and hummingbirds pollinate flowering understory plants such as the copihue. Extensive logging and conversion to fast-growing pine and eucalyptus plantations for the pulp and paper industry are the main threats; about 24 percent of the ecoregion remains protected.