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Brazil
Soils and Vegetation
Brazil's tropical soils produce 70 million tons of grain crops
per year, but this output is attributed more to their extension
than their fertility. Despite the earliest Portuguese explorers'
reports that the land was exceptionally fertile and that anything
planted grew well, the record in terms of sustained agricultural
productivity has been generally disappointing. High initial fertility
after clearing and burning usually is depleted rapidly, and acidity
and aluminum content are often high. Together with the rapid growth
of weeds and pests in cultivated areas, as a result of high temperatures
and humidity, this loss of fertility explains the westward movement
of the agricultural frontier and slash-and-burn agriculture ; it
takes less investment in work or money to clear new land than to
continue cultivating the same land. Burning also is used traditionally
to remove tall, dry, and nutrient-poor grass from pasture at the
end of the dry season. Until mechanization and the use of chemical
and genetic inputs increased during the agricultural intensification
period of the 1970s and 1980s, coffee planting and farming in general
moved constantly onward to new lands in the west and north. This
pattern of horizontal or extensive expansion maintained low levels
of technology and productivity and placed emphasis on quantity rather
than quality of agricultural production.
The largest areas of fertile soils, called terra roxa
(red earth), are found in the states of Paraná and São Paulo. The
least fertile areas are in the Amazon, where the dense rain forest
is. Soils in the Northeast are often fertile, but they lack water,
unless they are irrigated artificially.
In the 1980s, investments made possible the use of irrigation,
especially in the Northeast Region and in Rio Grande do Sul State,
which had shifted from grazing to soy and rice production in the
1970s. Savanna soils also were made usable for soybean farming through
acidity correction, fertilization, plant breeding, and in some cases
spray irrigation. As agriculture underwent modernization in the
1970s and 1980s, soil fertility became less important for agricultural
production than factors related to capital investment, such as infrastructure,
mechanization, use of chemical inputs, breeding, and proximity to
markets. Consequently, the vigor of frontier expansion weakened.
The variety of climates, soils, and drainage conditions in Brazil
is reflected in the range of its vegetation types. The Amazon Basin
and the areas of heavy rainfall along the Atlantic coast have tropical
rain forest composed of broadleaf evergreen trees. The rain forest
may contain as many as 3,000 species of flora and fauna within a
2.6-square-kilometer area. The Atlantic Forest is reputed to have
even greater biological diversity than the Amazon rain forest, which,
despite apparent homogeneity, contains many types of vegetation,
from high canopy forest to bamboo groves.
In the semiarid Northeast, caatinga , a dry, thick, thorny
vegetation, predominates. Most of central Brazil is covered with
a woodland savanna, known as the cerrado (sparse scrub
trees and drought-resistant grasses), which became an area of agricultural
development after the mid-1970s. In the South (Sul), needle-leaved
pinewoods (Paraná pine or araucaria) cover the highlands; grassland
similar to the Argentine pampa covers the sea-level plains. The
Mato Grosso swamplands (Pantanal Mato-grossense) is a Florida-sized
plain in the western portion of the Center-West (Centro-Oeste).
It is covered with tall grasses, bushes, and widely dispersed trees
similar to those of the cerrado and is partly submerged
during the rainy season.
Brazil, which is named after reddish dyewood (pau brasil
), has long been famous for the wealth of its tropical forests.
These are not, however, as important to world markets as those of
Asia and Africa, which started to reach depletion only in the 1980s.
By 1996 more than 90 percent of the original Atlantic forest had
been cleared, primarily for agriculture, with little use made of
the wood, except for araucaria pine in Paraná.
The inverse situation existed with regard to clearing for wood
in the Amazon rain forest, of which about 15 percent had been cleared
by 1994, and part of the remainder had been disturbed by selective
logging. Because the Amazon forest is highly heterogeneous, with
hundreds of woody species per hectare, there is considerable distance
between individual trees of economic value, such as mahogany and
cerejeira . Therefore, this type of forest is not normally
cleared for timber extraction but logged through high-grading, or
selection of the most valuable trees. Because of vines, felling,
and transportation, their removal causes destruction of many other
trees, and the litter and new growth create a risk of forest fires,
which are otherwise rare in rain forests. In favorable locations,
such as Paragominas, in the northeastern part of Pará State, a new
pattern of timber extraction has emerged: diversification and the
production of plywood have led to the economic use of more than
100 tree species.
Starting in the late 1980s, rapid deforestation and extensive
burning in Brazil received considerable international and national
attention. Satellite images have helped document and quantify deforestation
as well as fires, but their use also has generated considerable
controversy because of problems of defining original vegetation,
cloud cover, and dealing with secondary growth and because fires,
as mentioned above, may occur in old pasture rather than signifying
new clearing. Public policies intended to promote sustainable management
of timber extraction, as well as sustainable use of nontimber forest
products (such as rubber, Brazil nuts, fruits, seeds, oils, and
vines), were being discussed intensely in the mid-1990s. However,
implementing the principles of sustainable development , without
irreversible damage to the environment, proved to be more challenging
than establishing international agreements about them.
Data as of April 1997
Brazil
Climate
Although 90 percent of the country is within the tropical zone,
the climate of Brazil varies considerably from the mostly tropical
North (the equator traverses the mouth of the Amazon) to temperate
zones below the Tropic of Capricorn (23°27' S latitude), which
crosses the country at the latitude of the city of São Paulo. Brazil
has five climatic regions--equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland
tropical, and subtropical.
Temperatures along the equator are high, averaging above 25°C,
but not reaching the summer extremes of up to 40°C in the temperate
zones. There is little seasonal variation near the equator, although
at times it can get cool enough for wearing a jacket, especially
in the rain. At the country's other extreme, there are frosts south
of the Tropic of Capricorn during the winter (June-August), and
in some years there is snow in the mountainous areas, such as Rio
Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Temperatures in the cities of
São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, and Brasília are moderate (usually between
15°C and 30°C), despite their relatively low latitude, because
of their elevation of approximately 1,000 meters. Rio de Janeiro,
Recife, and Salvador on the coast have warm climates, with average
temperatures ranging from 23°C to 27°C, but enjoy constant
trade winds. The southern cities of Porto Alegre and Curitiba have
a subtropical climate similar to that in parts of the United States
and Europe, and temperatures can fall below freezing in winter.
Precipitation levels vary widely. Most of Brazil has moderate
rainfall of between 1,000 and 1,500 millimeters a year, with most
of the rain falling in the summer (between December and April) south
of the Equator. The Amazon region is notoriously humid, with rainfall
generally more than 2,000 millimeters per year and reaching as high
as 3,000 millimeters in parts of the western Amazon and near Belém.
It is less widely known that, despite high annual precipitation,
the Amazon rain forest has a three- to five-month dry season, the
timing of which varies according to location north or south of the
equator.
High and relatively regular levels of precipitation in the Amazon
contrast sharply with the dryness of the semiarid Northeast, where
rainfall is scarce and there are severe droughts in cycles averaging
seven years. The Northeast is the driest part of the country. The
region also constitutes the hottest part of Brazil, where during
the dry season between May and November, temperatures of more than
38°C have been recorded. However, the sertão , a region
of semidesert vegetation used primarily for low-density ranching,
turns green when there is rain. Most of the Center-West has 1,500
to 2,000 millimeters of rain per year, with a pronounced dry season
in the middle of the year, while the South and most of the Atlantic
coast as far north as Salvador, Bahia, in the Northeast, have similar
amounts of rainfall without a distinct dry season.
Geographic Regions
Brazil's twenty-six states and the Federal District (Distrito
Federal) are divided conventionally into five regions--North (Norte),
Northeast, Southeast (Sudeste), South, and Center-West . In 1996
there were 5,581 municipalities (municípios ), which have
municipal governments. Many municipalities, which are comparable
to United States counties, are in turn divided into districts (distritos
), which do not have political or administrative autonomy. In 1995
there were 9,274 districts. All municipal and district seats, regardless
of size, are considered officially to be urban. For purely statistical
purposes, the municipalities were grouped in 1990 into 559 micro-regions,
which in turn constituted 136 meso-regions. This grouping modified
the previous micro-regional division established in 1968, a division
that was used to present census data for 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1985.
Each of the five major regions has a distinct ecosystem. Administrative
boundaries do not necessarily coincide with ecological boundaries,
however. In addition to differences in physical environment, patterns
of economic activity and population settlement vary widely among
the regions. The principal ecological characteristics of each of
the five major regions, as well as their principal socioeconomic
and demographic features, are summarized below.
Data as of April 1997
Brazil
North
The equatorial North, also known as the Amazon or Amazônia, includes,
from west to east, the states of Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima,
Pará, Amapá, and, as of 1988, Tocantins (created from the northern
part of Goiás State, which is situated in the Center-West). Rondônia,
previously a federal territory, became a state in 1986. The former
federal territories of Roraima and Amapá were raised to statehood
in 1988.
With 3,869,638 square kilometers, the North is the country's largest
region, covering 45.3 percent of the national territory . The region's
principal biome is the humid tropical forest, also known as the
rain forest, home to some of the planet's richest biological diversity.
The North has served as a source of forest products ranging from
"backlands drugs" (such as sarsaparilla, cocoa, cinnamon, and turtle
butter) in the colonial period to rubber and Brazil nuts in more
recent times. In the mid-twentieth century, nonforest products from
mining, farming, and livestock-raising became more important, and
in the 1980s the lumber industry boomed. In 1990, 6.6 percent of
the region's territory was considered altered by anthropic (man-made)
action, with state levels varying from 0.9 percent in Amapá to 14.0
percent in Rondônia.
In 1996 the North had 11.1 million inhabitants, only 7 percent
of the national total. However, its share of Brazil's total had
grown rapidly in the 1970s and early 1980s as a result of interregional
migration, as well as high rates of natural increase. The largest
population concentrations are in eastern Pará State and in Rondônia.
The major cities are Belém and Santarém in Pará, and Manaus in Amazonas.
Living standards are below the national average. The highest per
capita income, US$2,888, in the region in 1994, was in Amazonas,
while the lowest, US$901, was in Tocantins.
Northeast
The nine states that make up the Northeast are Alagoas, Bahia,
Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte,
and Sergipe. The former federal territory of Fernando de Noronha
was incorporated into Pernambuco State in 1988. For planning or
ecological purposes, Maranhão west of 44° W longitude, most
of which until recently was covered with "pre-Amazon" forest (that
is, transition from the cerrado or caatinga to
tropical forest), is often included in the Amazon region.
The Northeast, with 1,561,178 square kilometers, covers 18.3 percent
of the national territory. Its principal biome is the semiarid caatinga
region, which is subject to prolonged periodic droughts. By the
1990s, this region utilized extensive irrigation. In an area known
as the forest zone (zona da mata ), the Atlantic Forest,
now almost entirely gone, once stretched along the coastline as
far north as Rio Grande do Norte. Sugar plantations established
there in colonial times persisted for centuries. Between the mata
and the sertão lies a transition zone called the agreste
, an area of mixed farming. In 1988-89, 46.3 percent of the region
had been subjected to anthropic activity, ranging from a low of
10.8 percent in Maranhão to a high of 77.2 percent in Alagoas.
Because its high rates of natural increase offset heavy out-migration,
the Northeast's large share of the country's total population declined
only slightly during the twentieth century. In 1996 the region had
45 million inhabitants, 28 percent of Brazil's total population.
The population is densest along the coast, where eight of the nine
state capitals are located, but is also spread throughout the interior.
The major cities are Salvador, in Bahia; Recife, in Pernambuco;
and Fortaleza, in Ceará. The region has the country's largest concentration
of rural population, and its living standards are the lowest in
Brazil. In 1994 Piauí had the lowest per capita income in the region
and the country, only US$835, while Sergipe had the highest average
income in the region, with US$1,958.
Data as of April 1997
Brazil
Southeast
The Southeast consists of the four states of Espírito Santo, Minas
Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. Its total area of 927,286
square kilometers corresponds to 10.9 percent of the national territory.
The region has the largest share of the country's population, 63
million in 1991, or 39 percent of the national total, primarily
as a result of internal migration since the mid-nineteenth century
until the 1980s. In addition to a dense urban network, it contains
the megacities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which in 1991 had
18.7 million and 11.7 million inhabitants in their metropolitan
areas, respectively. The region combines the highest living standards
in Brazil with pockets of urban poverty. In 1994 São Paulo boasted
an average income of US$4,666, while Minas Gerais reported only
US$2,833.
Originally, the principal biome in the Southeast was the Atlantic
Forest, but by 1990 less than 10 percent of the original forest
cover remained as a result of clearing for farming, ranching, and
charcoal making. Anthropic activity had altered 79.5 percent of
the region, ranging from 75 percent in Minas Gerais to 91.1 percent
in Espírito Santo. The region has most of Brazil's industrial production.
The state of São Paulo alone accounts for half of the country's
industries. Agriculture, also very strong, has diversified and now
uses modern technology.
South
The three states in the temperate South--Paraná, Rio Grande do
Sul, and Santa Catarina--cover 577,214 square kilometers, or 6.8
percent of the national territory. The population of the South in
1991 was 23.1 million, or 14 percent of the country's total. The
region is almost as densely settled as the Southeast, but the population
is more concentrated along the coast. The major cities are Curitiba
and Porto Alegre. The inhabitants of the South enjoy relatively
high living standards. Because of its industry and agriculture,
Paraná had the highest average income in 1994, US$3,674, while Santa
Catarina, a land of small farmers and small industries, had slightly
less, US$3,405.
In addition to the Atlantic Forest and pine woods, much of which
were cleared in the post-World War II period, the South contains
pampa grasslands, similar to those of Argentina and Uruguay, in
the extreme south. In 1982, 83.5 percent of the region had been
altered by anthropic activity, with the highest level (89.7 percent)
in Rio Grande do Sul, and the lowest (66.7 percent) in Santa Catarina.
Agriculture--much of which, such as rice production, is carried
out by small farmers--has high levels of productivity. There are
also some important industries.
Data as of April 1997
Brazil
Center-West
The Center-West consists of the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso,
and Mato Grosso do Sul (separated from Mato Grosso in 1979), as
well as the Federal District, site of Brasília, the national capital.
Until 1988 Goiás State included the area that then became the state
of Tocantins in the North.
The Center-West has 1,612,077 square kilometers and covers 18.9
percent of the national territory. Its main biome is the cerrado
, the tropical savanna in which natural grassland is partly covered
with twisted shrubs and small trees. The cerrado was used
for low-density cattle-raising in the past but is now also used
for soybean production. There are gallery forests along the rivers
and streams and some larger areas of forest, most of which have
been cleared for farming and livestock. In the north, the cerrado
blends into tropical forest. It also includes the Pantanal wetlands
in the west, known for their wildlife, especially aquatic birds
and caymans. In the early 1980s, 33.6 percent of the region had
been altered by anthropic activities, with a low of 9.3 percent
in Mato Grosso and a high of 72.9 percent in Goiás (not including
Tocantins). In 1996 the Center-West region had 10.2 million inhabitants,
or 6 percent of Brazil's total population. The average density is
low, with concentrations in and around the cities of Brasília, Goiânia,
Campo Grande, and Cuiabá. Living standards are below the national
average. In 1994 they were highest in the Federal District, with
per capita income of US$7,089 (the highest in the nation), and lowest
in Mato Grosso, with US$2,268.
The Environment
The environmental problem that attracted most international attention
in Brazil in the 1980s was undoubtedly deforestation in the Amazon.
Of all Latin American countries, Brazil still has the largest portion
(66 percent) of its territory covered by forests, but clearing and
burning in the Amazon proceeded at alarming rates in the 1970s and
1980s. Most of the clearing resulted from the activities of ranchers,
including large corporate operations, and a smaller portion resulted
from slash-and-burn techniques used by small farmers.
Deforestation in the Amazon declined from levels averaging 22,000
square kilometers per year during the 1970-88 period to about 11,000
square kilometers per year between 1988 and 1991. There was controversy
about the levels in the mid-1990s. Knowledgeable experts placed
the level of accumulated deforestation at about 15 percent in 1996,
as opposed to 12 percent in 1991. Although unseasonal rainfall patterns
may explain some year-to-year variation, the basic cause for the
decline in deforestation after 1987 was economic crisis. There was
insufficient capital, credit, or incentive for large-scale clearing,
as well as insufficient public investment to stimulate new migration.
Migration to the Amazon also fell quickly in the late 1980s. More
effective enforcement of government regulations and bad publicity
for large offenders, both of which were associated with changes
in public opinion about the environment, also played a part. Technical
changes involved in the transition from horizontal expansion of
agriculture to increasing productivity also accounted for decreasing
rates of deforestation.
Desertification, another important environmental problem in Brazil,
only received international attention following the United Nations
Conference on the Environment and Development, also known as the
Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Desertification
means that the soils and vegetation of drylands are severely degraded,
not necessarily that land turns into desert. In the early 1990s,
it became evident that the semiarid caatinga ecosystem
of the Northeast was losing its natural vegetation through clearing
and that the zone was therefore running the risk of becoming even
more arid, as was occurring also in some other regions.
In areas where agriculture is more intense and developed, there
are serious problems of soil erosion, siltation and sedimentation
of streams and rivers, and pollution with pesticides. In parts of
the savannas, where irrigated soybean production expanded in the
1980s, the water table has been affected. Expansion of pastures
for cattle-raising has reduced natural biodiversity in the savannas.
Swine effluents constitute a serious environmental problem in Santa
Catarina in the South.
In urban areas, at least in the largest cities, levels of air
pollution and congestion are typical of, or worse than, those found
in cities in developed countries. At the same time, however, basic
environmental problems related to the lack of sanitation, which
developed countries solved long ago, persist in Brazil. These problems
are sometimes worse in middle-sized and small cities than in large
cities, which have more resources to deal with them. Environmental
problems of cities and towns finally began to receive greater attention
by society and the government in the 1990s.
According to many critics, the economic crisis in the 1980s worsened
environmental degradation in Brazil because it led to overexploitation
of natural resources, stimulated settlement in fragile lands in
both rural and urban areas, and weakened environmental protection.
At the same time, however, the lower level of economic activity
may have reduced pressure on the environment, such as the aforementioned
decreased level of investment in large-scale clearing in the Amazon.
That pressure could increase if economic growth accelerates, especially
if consumption patterns remain unchanged and more sustainable forms
of production are not found.
In Brazil public policies regarding the environment are generally
advanced, although their implementation and the enforcement of environmental
laws have been far from ideal. Laws regarding forests, water, and
wildlife have been in effect since the 1930s. Brazil achieved significant
institutional advances in environmental policy design and implementation
after the Stockholm Conference on the Environment in 1972. Specialized
environmental agencies were organized at the federal level and in
some states, and many national parks and reserves were established.
By 1992 Brazil had established thirty-four national parks and fifty-six
biological reserves (see fig. 5). In 1981 the National Environment
Policy was defined, and the National System for the Environment
(Sistema Nacional do Meio Ambiente--Sisnama) was created, with the
National Environmental Council (Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente--Conama)
at its apex, municipal councils at its base, and state-level councils
in between. In addition to government authorities, all of these
councils include representatives of civil society.
The 1988 constitution incorporates environmental precepts that
are advanced compared with those of most other countries. At that
time, the Chamber of Deputies (Câmara dos Deputados) established
its permanent Commission for Defense of the Consumer, the Environment,
and Minorities. In 1989 the creation of the Brazilian Institute
for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Instituto Brasileiro
do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis--Ibama) joined
together the federal environment secretariat and the federal agencies
specializing in forestry, rubber, and fisheries. In 1990 the administration
of Fernando Collor de Mello (president, 1990-92) appointed the well-known
environmentalist José Lutzemberger as secretary of the environment
and took firm positions on the environment and on Indian lands.
In 1992 Brazil played a key role at the Earth Summit, not only as
its host but also as negotiator on sustainable development agreements,
including the conventions on climate and biodiversity. The Ministry
of Environment was created in late 1992, after President Collor
had left office. In August 1993, it became the Ministry of Environment
and the Legal Amazon and took a more pragmatic approach than had
the combative Lutzemberger. However, because of turnover in its
leadership, a poorly defined mandate, and lack of funds, its role
and impact were limited. In 1995 its mandate and name were expanded
to include water resources--the Ministry of Environment, Hydraulic
Resources, and the Legal Amazon--it began a process of restructuring
to meet its mandate of "shared management of the sustainable use
of natural resources." In 1997 the Commission on Policies for Sustainable
Development and Agenda 21 began to function under the aegis of the
Civil Household. One of its main tasks was to prepare Agenda 21
(a plan for the twenty-first century) for Brazil and to stimulate
preparation of state and local agendas.
Institutional development at the official level was accompanied
and in part stimulated by the growth, wide diffusion, and growing
professional development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
dedicated to environmental and socio-environmental causes. The hundreds
of NGOs throughout Brazil produce documents containing both useful
information and passionate criticisms. Among the Brazilian environmental
NGOs, the most visible are SOS Atlantic Forest (SOS Mata Atlântica),
the Social-Environmental Institute (Instituto Sócio-Ambiental--ISA),
the Pro-Nature Foundation (Fundação Pró-Natureza--Funatura), and
the Amazon Working Group (Grupo de Trabalho Amazônico--GTA). The
Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment
and Development and the Brazilian Association of Nongovernmental
Organizations (Associacão Brasileira de Organizações Não-Governamentais--ABONG)
are national networks, and there are various regional and thematic
networks as well. The main international environmental NGOs that
have offices or affiliates in Brazil are the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF), Conservation International (CI), and Nature Conservancy.
Especially after the events of the late 1980s, international organizations
and developed countries have allocated significant resources for
the environmental sector in Brazil. In 1992 environmental projects
worth about US$6.8 million were identified, with US$2.6 in counterpart
funds (funds provided by the Brazilian government). More than 70
percent of the total value was for sanitation, urban pollution control,
and other urban environmental projects. Thus, the allocation of
resources did not accord with the common belief that funding was
influenced unduly by alarmist views on deforestation in the Amazon.
Among the specific environmental projects with international support,
the most important was the National Environmental Plan (Plano Nacional
do Meio Ambiente--PNMA), which received a US$117 million loan from
the World Bank (see Glossary). The National Environmental Fund (Fundo
Nacional do Meio Ambiente--FNMA), in addition to budgetary funds,
received US$20 million from the Inter-American Development Bank
(see Glossary) to finance the environmental activities of NGOs and
small municipal governments. The Pilot Program for the Conservation
of the Brazilian Rain Forests (Programa Piloto para a Proteção das
Florestas Tropicais do Brasil--PPG-7) was supported by the world's
seven richest countries (the so-called G-7) and the European Community
(see Glossary), which allocated US$258 million for projects in the
Amazon and Atlantic Forest regions. The Global Environment Facility
(GEF), created in 1990, set aside US$30 million for Brazil, part
of which is managed by a national fund called Funbio. GEF also established
a small grants program for NGOs, which focused on the cerrado
during its pilot phase. The World Bank also made loans for environmental
and natural resource management in Rondônia and Mato Grosso, in
part to correct environmental and social problems that had been
created by the World Bank-funded development of the northwest corridor
in the 1980s.
Despite favorable laws, promising institutional arrangements,
and external funding, the government has not, on the whole, been
effective in controlling damage to the environment. This failure
is only in small measure because of the opposition of anti-environmental
groups. In greater part, it can be attributed to the traditional
separation between official rhetoric and actual practice in Brazil.
It is also related to general problems of governance, fiscal crisis,
and lingering doubts about appropriate tradeoffs between the environment
and development. Some of the most effective governmental action
in the environmental area has occurred at the state and local levels
in the most developed states and has involved NGOs. In 1994 the
PNMA began to stress decentralization and strengthening of state
environmental agencies, a tendency that subsequently gained momentum.
Data as of April 1997
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