stands of mahogany are found in these areas on the 
upper reaches of the Juruad and Purus Rivers, and 
quantities of logs are floated down to Manaus for 
export or manufacture. Since the transport of 
timber from these remote areas is rather difficult 
and the logs have to be floated over the rapids to 
navigable water, mahogany is the only species 
These 
forests also contain many seringueira or rubber trees 
which have long been exploited for rubber, especially 
valuable enough at present to take out. 
near the rivers. 
Coastal mountains.—In the east, starting in the 
State of Rio Grande do Norte and extending south 
and increasing in width to the State of Sao Paulo, 
is a large belt of tropical rain forest found on the 
slopes of the mountains and at the foot of the coastal 
ranges. This rain forest owes its existence to the 
abundant rain carried from the southeast by the 
trade winds to fall on the eastern slopes of the 
mountains. Rainfall over much of the area is 40 
to 80 inches a year, with less at the northern end 
of the belt and an occasional maximum of well over 
200 inches in some areas in the mountains to the 
south close to the Atlantic coast. 
generally wet, but there may be a distinct dry 
summer, as in the coastal north, or the mild winters 
The climate is 
may be relatively dry, as in the south behind the 
Great Escarpment. 
The forest is similar to the Amazon rain forest and 
equally complex in species composition. Many 
species of the Amazon forest also occur in the coastal 
mountains or are represented by closely related 
species. The coastal forest differs from the Amazon 
forest in that dense undergrowth, lianas, and 
epiphytes are typical; the trees tend to be shorter 
and have wider crowns; and deciduous broadleaf 
species (hardwoods) may be fairly common in 
places (fig. 14). In the drier areas the forest is 
often called semideciduous. 
Many of the cabinet woods, including considerable 
rosewood (jacaranda), have come from these stands. 
Because the population is relatively dense in many 
of the coastal areas and the forest has been easily 
accessible, the original forest area has been greatly 
reduced, especially in the north and the south, by 
land clearing, charcoal production, and destructive 
Some tracts of virgin or nearly undis- 
turbed forest, however, still exist in the Rio Doce 
valley and along the border between Minas Gerais 
and Bahia. 
logging. 
Parana Pine Forest 
On the highlands and mountains in the three 
southernmost States, mostly at elevations between 
2,000 and 4,000 feet, occur the extensive Parana pine 
(araucaria) forests (fig. 15). Precipitation in the 
(Photo by K. Hueck, courtesy IFLA.) 
Figure 13.—Tropical rain forest igapo along tributary of the Amazon River. 
WP FOREST RESOURCE REPORT 16, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
