Natural Resources

Biodiversity

It is estimated that 40 percent of the world’s biodiversity is located in Brazil. Of the twelve categories of mammals that inhabit the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, eleven are present in Brazil, representing over 400 species. Brazil has the world’s largest variety of birds, with almost 1,600 species including many varieties of parrots. One can find about 4,430 species of vertebrate animals, among mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Naturalists have catalogued over 100,000 invertebrates in Brazil, of which more than 70,000 are insects. Moreover, 59 percent of the species of amphibians, 37 percent of the reptiles, 17 percent of the mammals, and 12 percent of the birds can only be found in Brazil. The specific conditions of each region in Brazil produced five main biomes – the Amazon, the cerrado (savanna), the Atlantic Forest, the caatinga (dryland), and the Pantanal (swamplands).

The Brazilian Amazon contains the largest single reserve of biological organisms in the world. The region covers an area of approximately 1.9 million sq. miles (5 million sq. km), which accounts for about 60 percent of the Brazilian territory. No one really knows how many species there are in the Amazon forest, but scientists estimate that there are between 800,000 and 5 million species living there, amounting to 8 to 17 percent of all the species in the entire world: 1.5 million catalogued species of trees and other plants, 3,000 types of freshwater fish, 950 species of birds and 300 species of mammals. Among the native fish found in the area are the pirarucu, said to be the largest freshwater fish in the world with specimens measuring over 6.6 feet (2 meters); the tambaqui, a member of the fruit-eating characin family; and the piranha. The Amazon harbors 10 percent of the world’s total freshwater resources.

The second largest biome in Brazil is the Cerrado, covering almost 25 percent of the Brazilian territory, and a greater portion of the central part of the country. This is a special type of land combining sparse scrub trees and dryness-resistant grasses. The Cerrado also contains a huge biodiversity. It is estimated that one third of Brazil’s plant and animal species are located in this region. A third biome is the Caatinga, or the Brazilian Sertão, which is a dry land area of 284,000 sq. miles (736,000 sq. km), covering 9 percent of the Brazilian territory. It is the only exclusively Brazilian biome, having a high percentage of endemic plant species.

The Mato Grosso swamplands (Pantanal) formed by the flooding of the rivers of the Paraguay basin, constitute a plain which covers 57,915 sq. miles (150,000 sq. km) in the western portion of the center of Brazil. The Pantanal is the world’s biggest flooded plain, with at least 3,500 species of plants, 264 of fish, 652 of birds, 102 of mammals, 177 of reptiles, and 40 of amphibians. UNESCO recognizes it as a “World Biosphere Reserve” and also as a “World Natural Heritage Site.”

The Atlantic Forest, covering 425,000 sq. miles (1.1 sq. km), is the most endangered biome in Brazil. More than 70 percent of the Brazilian population, the largest Brazilian cities and the greatest industrial areas are located in what used to be the Atlantic Forest. Today, what is left corresponds to 7.3 percent of the estimated forest from the 15th century. In the state of Bahia, international researchers have identified a world record of 458 tree species in a single hectare of Atlantic Forest (in the U.S.A., a hectare of forest typically contains ten species).

Public Policies

Since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio-92), held in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian government and society have developed committed efforts to protect and conserve its environment, within a framework of sustainable development. Other initiatives had been taken before 1992, namely on forestry and water. In the aftermath of Rio-92, the Ministry of Environment was created, and, in 1994, it adopted the National Program of Biological Diversity, which constitutes the basic implementation instrument of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity. The main objectives are to preserve the ecosystems and to set rules for the sustainable use and fair distribution of the benefits accruing from the genetic resources’ exploitation.
In 1992, the G-7 Pilot Program to Preserve the Brazilian Rain Forest (PPG-7) was launched. The PPG-7 encompasses not only projects on forest management and deforestation and forest fires, but also floodplain management, Indigenous lands and population, ecological corridors, science and technology, extractive reserves, and environmental education. Brazil has also taken the initiative to pass and implement legislation creating protected areas and areas for conservation. These areas, currently, encompass around 8.13 percent of the Brazilian territory. This figure raises up to 20 percent, if one takes into account the Indian lands.

Mineral Resources

Brazil is known to possess extremely rich mineral deposits, although the country’s total resources have yet to be comprehensively surveyed. Brazil has the world’s largest reserves of niobium (86.9 percent) – a rare gray-blue metallic transition element occurring naturally in several minerals and used in alloys for superconductors, and of tantalite (62.5 percent) – from which one gets tantalum used in surgery and for electronic components. Brazil possesses a diverse range of reserves, among which one can find potassium, phosphate, tungsten, cassiterite (the chief source of tin), lead, graphite (world`s second largest), chrome, gold, zirconium and a rare mineral, thorium. Brazil also has the world's sixth largest reserves of commercially recoverable iron ore, some 19.75 billion tons, and 6.4 percent of the world’s total. Most of the deposits are concentrated in the states of Minas Gerais and Pará, with Minas Gerais alone accounting for 77 percent. Brazil’s identified deposits are sufficient to supply the world demand for iron (based on current levels and predictable growth) for the next 20 years. In addition to iron ore, Brazil also has the world’s sixth largest reserves of manganese (51.3 million tons) and bauxite (1.8 billion tons), and holds 4.6 percent of the world’s reserves of nickel (6 million tons). Adding to this richness, in 2001, Brazil registered the world’s sixth largest reserve in uranium (309,000 tons), with only 25 percent of the territory surveyed. Brazil is among the five biggest world producers of gems, such as diamonds, aquamarines, topazes, amethysts, tourmalines, and emeralds, and other stones, such as granite.