Mission Blue Hope Spots Website: http://mission-blue.org/hope-spots-new/

Conservation International Seascapes website: http://sp10.conservation.org/global/marine/initiatives/seascapes/pages/brazil.aspx

The Abrolhos Seascape, located off Brazil’s central coast, is a biodiversity hotspot that contains the largest concentration of coral reefs in the South Atlantic, along with mangrove estuaries and other important coastal habitats. Currently there are four federal marine protected areas in this region: the Abrolhos National Marine Park, a no-take area covering 882.5 km², and three extractive marine reserves totaling 2,900 km² that were developed through collaboration between the Abrolhos Community and the international conservation organization Conservation International and the Waitt Foundation. While Cassurubá, the newest of these three extractive marine reserves, was created in 2009, Conservation International has conducted new marine habitat surveys and has developed a proposal to expand the MPA network in the Abrolhos Seascape by expanding the Abrolhos National Marine Park by 10,000 km² and creating two new marine protected areas: a 10,000 km² multiple-use Humpback Whale Wildlife Refuge, and a 71,000 km² multiple-use Abrolhos Environmental Protected Area. The Abrolhos Bank was declared a Hope Spot by Mission Blue in 2013, as the region is home to many commercially valuable species of reef fish, including several threatened species. It is also a breeding ground for humpback and southern right whales in the South Atlantic Ocean.