GEO Brasil - UNEP

the state of biodiversity
the state of environment in Brazil
The Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988 placed the
environment within the focus of political decision-making,
affirming the relationship between social and economic
development and environmental quality Gradually, an
integrative approach began to take place, in opposition to
the classical development vision that had been adopted until
then This gradual change in paradigm is occurring not only
at the federal level, but also in the various States, Federal
District and Municipalities that now share with the Federal
Government a considerable
parcel of responsibility for the
execution of environmental
policies
By hosting the United Nations
Conference on Environment and
Development, in 1992, and by
ratifying the signature of the
Convention on Biological
Diversity, Brazil reaffirms and
reassumes its constitutional
commitment to protect the
biodiversity and the country’s
genetic patrimony, giving new
impetus to the history of
conservation activity in the
country
the country is among the first five and, within the group,
Brazil occupies the second position worldwide Mittermeier
et al 1997) These estimates do not include, however, the
invertebrates, that represent, in fact, a great mass of living
biological species, and for which it is still very hard to present
an evaluation For many of the groups of invertebrates and,
moreover, for microorganisms, information is very
incomplete
Around 200,000 species have
already been described for Brazil
(Table 1) It is estimated that the
country’s biodiversity
comprises a number 6 to 10
times greater, that is,
approximately 2 million forms
of life (Lewinsohn & Prado 2000)
From these, the great majority
belongs to taxonomic groups for
which classification in the
country is still very incomplete,
such as insects, which must
represent from 50 to 55 percent
of the total existing species in
Brazil (Table 2)
The change in behaviour
observed is especially important
in countries such as Brazil, which
harbour approximately 10 to 20
percent of the total number of
species known to science and
about 30 percent of the tropical
forests in the world (MMA 1998) These forests, which occupy
less than 7 percent of the Earth’s land, have more than half of
the known species of fauna and flora (Pádua 1997) Widely
distributed tabulations place Brazil among the richest
countries in biodiversity in the planet, especially in the group
of vertebrates and superior plants (Mittermeier et al 1997)
Brazil has the greatest number of known species of mammals,
freshwater fish and superior plants, the second in richness
regarding amphibians, the third in birds and the fifth in reptiles
Regarding its diversity of endemic species (that exist
exclusively on Brazilian territory), in all groups mentioned,
A thorough survey of available
information for all taxonomic
groups was recently undertaken,
as an input for the National
Biodiversity Policy (Lewinsohn
& Prado, 2000) Despite
satisfactory scientific
knowledge for some groups in some of the Brazilian biomes,
overall, small collections, with little representative samples
of ecosystems, as well as taxonomy problems and lack of
specialists are some of the reasons that made classification
of the Brazilian biodiversity a difficult task Thus the
identification of the number of species that comprise our
fauna and flora has been made through estimates that were
often undertaken from extrapolations throughout the
country, based on data of a well-known region Other
estimates are produced through the premise of
proportionality of less known groups in relation to those
that are better studied
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