Brazil Environment Profile 2012

Ecologically sustainable development is an issue in some sectors of the economy, but often tends to be subordinated to economic growth targets. One of the greatest development challenges facing Brazil is how to develop the Amazon Basin in an environmentally sustainable manner. The boom in the Brazilian agro industry is pushing agricultural frontiers towards the Amazon region. The growth of extensive cattle and soya farming has had a significant environmental impact in the region. Huge tracts of land are being cleared of their original forest to make way for soya farms. Other factors contributing to deforestation include mining, oil and gas projects in the Amazon basin. In recent years, Brazil has developed many of the legal and institutional instruments necessary for reconciling development and environmental protection, including water management, forest protection and biodiversity regulations. But there remains a split in the government, with the environmental ministry on one side and the so-called development ministries on the other. In May 2008, Environment Minister Marina Silva, a well-known environmentalist with a very high international profile, resigned because she strongly disagreed with some of the infrastructure projects planned for the Amazon region under the auspices of the national PAC development plan. She also disagreed with plans to allow increased commercial farming in the region. The president of Brazil’s environmental protection agency and the president of the Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity also resigned at the same time as Silva. In 2008, the rate of deforestation increased for the first time after three years of decline. In December 2008, the environment ministry published an ambitious national Global Climate Change Plan to cut the rate of Amazon deforestation in half by 2017. The government promised to invest heavily in reforestation programs, and President Lula freed up $550 million in funds to protect Brazil’s forests over the next 12 years. With this plan Brazil has for the first time set concrete national goals for slowing deforestation and reducing its carbon emissions.

Brazil contains some of the largest biome of rainforest in the world, the Amazon. This region is home to over 21 million people and contains one fifth of freshwater in the world with the Amazon River . It is also rich biodiversity which gives it its value. It includes a multitude of species of flora and fauna and many are still those to be discovered.  However, the rainforest is experiencing a very rapid rate of deforestation that threatens this ecosystem. The main causes are cattle (80% of the deforested area), cutting wood for construction, and agriculture whose cultivation of coffee, sugar cane and soybean . Already 17% of the forest has been razed to the purpose and the destruction continues at an alarming rate . Deforestation causes fragmentation or complete disappearance of habitat and many species are susceptible. In addition, the tropical forest stores a large amount of carbon. The rapid destruction of forests contributes significantly to climate change because much carbon dioxide is removed when the biomass of these forests are burned to fertilize the soil. Indeed, this supports agriculture or the growth of grasses for cattle, but for a shorter period because this type of land use inevitably leads to desertification or long term, making the land unproductive and unusable .

Given the sensitivity of many species to deforestation, major corridors and protected areas should be designed to allow wildlife movement, dispersal of seeds and plant genetic diversity of the rainforest of the Amazon . Brazil is one of the few countries in the world that can extend the area of its cultivated land, leaving devastation in its forests. Between 1980 and 2000, more than half of new fields have been torn from the rainforest.

ecosystems, such as the Amazon Rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world, with the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, sustaining the greatest biodiversity. In the south, the Araucaria pine forest grows under temperate conditions.

The rich wildlife of Brazil reflects the variety of natural habitats. Much of it, however, remains largely undocumented, and new species are regularly found.[citation needed] Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four million.  Larger mammals include pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs, and foxes; peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums, and armadillos are abundant. Deer are plentiful in the south, and many species of New World monkeys are found in the northern rain forests.Concern for the environment has grown in response to global interest in environmental issues.

The natural heritage of Brazil is severely threatened by cattle ranching and agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing, wildlife trade, dams and infrastructure, water contamination, climate change, fire, and invasive species.

In many areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by development.Construction of highways has opened up previously remote areas for agriculture and settlement; dams have flooded valleys and inundated wildlife habitats; and mines have scarred and polluted the landscape.