The Atlantic Rainforest in South America is one of the most critically endangered ecosystems in the world, with only 7% remaining. Tropical forests such as the Atlantic Rainforest serve as the "lungs of the earth," and the restoration of this forest will have a positive impact on people everywhere by helping remove dangerous "greenhouse gas" from the atmosphere, mitigating climate change, and supporting an extraordinary diversity of plants, animals and birds which are rarely found in other parts of the world. The Atlantic Rainforest supports 20,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds and 23 primate species, many found nowhere else on earth.

Deforestation is second only to the burning of fossil fuels as a source of carbon dioxide emissions (one of the key "greenhouse gases") that cause climate change. If the entire Atlantic Rainforest is restored, it will ultimately remove 10 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.