GEO Brasil - UNEP

the State of Activities in Marine
and Coastal Areas
the state of environment in Brazil
Over the past few years, Brazil’s maritime and coastal areas
have been suffering considerable environmental
degradation generated by the growing pressure on its
maritime and continental natural resources, as well as by
these ecosystems’ limited capacity to absorb the resulting
impacts The major environmental impacts on Brazil’s
Coastal Zone are: introduction of nutrients; habitat alteration
or destruction; sedimentation changes; overexploitation of
fishing resources; industrial pollution, mainly caused by
persistent pollutants; and the introduction of exotic species
Along the coast, a number of different ecologically
important environments can be found, such as mangrove
swamps, dunes and cliffs, bays and estuaries, reefs and
coral reefs, beaches and wild coasts, inter-tidal plains and
other ecologically important environments The main
remaining spots of Atlantic Forest are also to be found in
this area, including its biggest continuous area around the
Serra do Mar mountain range, spread over the states of Rio
de Janeiro, São Paulo and Paraná The occurrence of
mangrove swamps is also very expressive along Brazilian
The coastal plains formed by the juxtaposition of coasts
are an important feature of Brazilian coast, particularly in
the southern and southeastern regions, where one can find
beaches, frontal dunes, coastal cordons and inter-cordon
areas known as “restingas”
Due to their characteristics and attributes, these
environments are used for oil extraction, ports, agriculture,
agribusiness, aquaculture, carcinoculture, mineral
extraction, vegetable extraction, extractivism, livestock
farming, fishery, reforestation, salt-work plants, recreation,
urbanisation and preservation areas (ecosystems)
Population growth and development are the main causes
of the environmental changes observed in Brazil As a
developing country, Brazil needs to grow at a fast rate so as
to provide for people’s basic needs Therefore, exploitation
of natural resources and industrial production have an
important role in supplying resources to the domestic market
and achieving commercial surplus The environmental costs
associated to development are very high, especially in the
absence of an effective environmental control system
Some areas around big urban centres along the Brazilian
coast are source of concern in regard to environmental
degradation Many bays and estuaries have had their natural
habitats threatened by pollution and exploitation of natural
resources
coast (between 10,000 and 25,000 km 2 ) extending from the
State of Amapá in the North along most of the coast,
bordering estuaries, lagoons and bays down to Laguna, in
the State of Santa Catarina, the southernmost occurrence
of this ecosystem in the Western South Atlantic The
mangrove swamps have an important function for marine
biotic reproduction, promoting a balanced interaction
between the sea and the land
Due to Brazil’s colonial history, it was originally occupied
from the coast towards the hinterlands The first populated
areas appeared along the coast and then spread towards
the west This led to a greater population density in the
coastal zone, a fact that has remained true ever since
However, the population distribution was very uneven at
first, with great concentrations alternating with nearly
uninhabited areas This picture has changed over the past
few years, when those least populated zones attracted many
new inhabitants As a result, the population along the coast
grew to more than 70 million people, whose lifestyle has a
direct impact on the coastal environment
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