GEO Brasil - UNEP

also considerable, with approximately
161 species of mammals, 837 species
of birds, of which 3 percent are
endemic; approximately 120 reptiles,
20 percent endemic; and 150
amphibians, with 30 percent of
endemism This totals 1,268 species
of vertebrates, of which 117 are
endemic
This biome was also the target of
intense and uncontrolled occupation
Considered, for many years, as nonimportant
from the biological point of
view, great extensions of the Cerrado
were the object of expansion projects
for agricultural frontiers and
production of grains for exports, with
no concern for consequent
environmental impacts Many of these
projects were implanted through
government incentives, as Polocentro
and Prodecer, with the objective of
incorporating the Cerrado region into
the production of grains in the country,
increasing competitiveness of
agricultural products in the
international market (MMA 2000b)
Preliminary analysis about the
integrity of the Cerrado forest
demonstrated that only one third of
the biome has little human presence
At the same time that a radical change
in its landscape is observed, it is
concluded that around 70 percent of
Brazil The region has a considerable
number of endemic species Of the
596 registered arboreal and shrub
species, 180 are endemic Many new
species of animals and plants have
been recently described, indicating
precarious zoological and botanical
knowledge
There are no concrete data as to the
rate of loss of vegetation cover for
the Caatinga Maps from the
Radambrasil Project (IGBE 1993)
demonstrate that the area covered by
agricultural activities in the biome
consisted of 201,786 km 2 , which
corresponded to 2747 percent A
simulation of the effects of roads as
axes for environmental change,
considering the width of seven
kilometres of area impacted from
roads, resulted in an altered area of
131,044 km 2 Combining these
estimates, the total altered area
covered by man in the region would
be 332,830 km 2 , in other words, 4532
percent
of the biome This figure places
Caatinga as one of the environments
most altered by man in Brazil, being
surpassed only by the Atlantic Forest
and Cerrado (Casteleti et al 2000)
Pantanal is the greatest wetland in the
world, covering an extension of
approximately 365,000 square
kilometres among Bolivia, Paraguay
and Brazil In the Brazilian territory it
occupies 140,000 km², 35 percent in
the State of Mato Grosso and 65
percent in the State of Mato Grosso
do Sul (MMA 2001) During the flood
period, water bodies meet and run into
waters from the Paraguay River The
summer weather determines floods
between November and March in the
north and between May and August
in the South, in this case under the
regulating influence of the Pantanal
The Pantanal contains transition
zones, with both the Cerrado and the
Amazon, where it physiognomies of
both these ecosystems can be found
on non-flooded lands, providing a
great diversity of fauna and flora
(IBAMA 2001) There are at least 3,500
species of plants, 264 of fish, 652 of
birds, 102 of mammals, 177 of reptiles
and 40 of amphibians (Lourival et al
2000) One of the most interesting
aspects is the high density of many
species of large Brazilian vertebrates,
not found anywhere else on the
the state of the environment in Brazil
the Cerrado area was not adequately
studied (Conservation International et
al 1999)
The Caatinga region comprises an
area of approximately 735,000 km 2 ,
approximately 11 percent of the national
territory, including part of the states
of Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte,
Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas,
Sergipe, Bahia and Minas Gerais This
biome is dominated by few vegetation
types with distribution restricted to
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