GEO Brasil - UNEP

the state of biodiversity
the state of environment in Brazil
Table2-Numberofanimal species in Brazil
that are officially recognised as endangered species
for each animal Class or Phylum, number of
publications on such species, and publication rate by
species.
Group
Mammals
Birds
Turtles
Other reptiles
Amphibians
Insects
Onychophora
Cnidarians
All
contribute an order of size to the
knowledge of biodiversity and
focus on the need for studies An
example of the great potential of
diversity is still unknown in Brazilian
ecosystems is the recent discovery
of two species of primates in the
Amazon The monkeys are from the
Sauá groups that live at the dense
treetops in family groups, and are
the size of cats
No. SpeciesNo. Publications Pub/species
39.5
6.9
459.8
1.3
1.0
0.2
0.0
0.0
28.3
* Sea turtles have been dettached from other reptiles due to the
significant discrepancy in the number of publications.
** Not equal to the total amount of publications by group due to
the redundancy of some publications.
Source: Zoological Records 1978-2000 (Volumes 121 to 137),
enquiry of all records of publications on species that appear in the
official list of endangered fauna (IBAMA Decisions No. 1522, of
19/12/1989, and No. 62, of 17/06/1997).
21, it is fundamental that society internalise the ideal that natural resources will
only be available for this and future generations if we use them in a rational
manner, respecting the necessary time for their regeneration and reposition To
adapt human development needs to situations that enable conservation of
natural resources and survival of species and ecosystems is one of the greatest
challenges of sustainable development as defined in the agreements of the
Convention on Biological Diversity and Agenda 21 MMA 2000a)
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is no doubt the main existing
treaty on this theme and brings, among its articles, specific items that recommend
the identification, monitoring and protection of ecosystems and habitats that
are most important for biodiversity conservation (MMA 2000a)
Environments such as the Atlantic Forest and Amazon Forests harbour a great
number of endemic species Even biomes that exist in harsher bio-climate
conditions, such as Cerrado and Caatinga, have some of the richest flora and
fauna in the world compared to regions that present the same conditions in
other countries or continents (Lewinhson & Prado 2000)
Despite uncertainties regarding the composition of Brazilian species, direct
exploitation of natural resources and deforestation of vegetation caps have led
to the accelerated loss of our natural endowment Impact on ecosystems derives
from processes of land occupation and, furthermore, with the use of archaic
economic and social practices, that are developed based on the premise of nonexhaustion
of natural resources
It is important to highlight that these numbers hide significant differences of
biodiversity knowledge between regions and ecosystems Existing knowledge
is concentrated in the South, Southeast and North regions of Brazil with an
enormous lack of studies in the Central-west and Northeast regions, respectively
The number of recent diversity inventories in the Pantanal and Caatinga biomes
and in the Northeast coast is extremely small compared to other large Brazilian
biomes
This richness has always lead to the
idea that Brazilian biodiversity is
abundant and not exhaustive, and
for this reason explored in a
predatory and disorderly manner
since the colonial period
Occupation of forest land – be it for
use of forestry resources or for its
transformation into areas for food
production – has been an important
characteristic in the process of
economic growth for most part of
the country To revert this process
and meet the objectives of Agenda
Another aspect to be considered is that today various components of Brazilian
biodiversity are threatened (table 2) to an extent that they will only be able to
survive through human intervention, management of native population or
communities and natural ecosystems This management is only possible with
knowledge of the species and ecological processes that sustained the
intervention In Brazil, as previously mentioned, human and material resources
to produce knowledge are still well below current needs (Figure 1), although
Brazilian science possesses an extensive and consolidated system of professionals
and institutions, if compared to other developing countries (Lewinsohn & Prado
2000) The result is that today there is lack of basic information for most species,
even of groups considered to be the most studied (Figure 2) In addition to
being insufficient, information on species is badly distributed, with a
predominance of studies on some groups, such as large vertebrates, in detriment
of others, such as insects
34