BRAZIL

Brazil Forest Figures Forest Cover Total forest area: 477,698,000 ha % of land area: 57.2% Primary forest cover: 415,890,000 ha % of land area: 49.8% % total forest area: 87.1% Deforestation Rates, 2000-2005 Annual change in forest cover: -3,103,000 ha Annual deforestation rate: -0.6% Change in defor. rate since '90s: 22.0% Total forest loss since 1990: -42,329,000 ha Total forest loss since 1990:-8.1% Primary or "Old-growth" forests Annual loss of primary forests: -3466000 ha Annual deforestation rate: -0.8% Change in deforestation rate since '90s: 35.0% Primary forest loss since 1990: -17,330,000 ha Primary forest loss since 1990:-9.7% Forest Classification Public: n/a Private: n/a Other: n/a Use Production: 5.5% Protection: 17.8% Conservation: 8.1% Social services: 23.8% Multiple purpose: 44.8% None or unknown: n/a Forest Area Breakdown Total area: 477,698,000 ha Primary: 415,890,000 ha Modified natural: 56,424,000 ha Semi-natural: n/a Production plantation: 5,384,000 ha Production plantation: n/a Plantations Plantations, 2005: 5,384,000 ha % of total forest cover: 1.1% Annual change rate (00-05): 21,000,000 ha Carbon storage Above-ground biomass: 79,219 M t Below-ground biomass: 22,017 M t Area annually affected by Fire: 68,000 ha Insects: 30,000 ha Diseases: 20,000 ha Number of tree species in IUCN red list Number of native tree species: 7,880 Critically endangered: 34 Endangered: 100 Vulnerable: 187 Wood removal 2005 Industrial roundwood: 168,091,000 m3 o.b. Wood fuel: 122,385,000 m3 o.b. Value of forest products, 2005 Industrial roundwood: $2,897,019,000 Wood fuel: $942,020,000 Non-wood forest products (NWFPs): $193,131,000 Total Value: $4,032,170,000

Brazil holds about one-third of the world's remaining rainforests, including a majority of the Amazon rainforest. It is also overwhelmingly the most biodiverse country on Earth, with more than 56,000 described species of plants, 1,700 species of birds, 695 amphibians, 578 mammals, and 651 reptiles.

Due to the vastness of the Amazon rainforest, Brazil's average loss of 34,660 square kilometers of primary forest per year between 2000 and 2005 represents only about 0.8 percent of its forest cover. Nevertheless, deforestation in Brazil is one of the most important global environmental issues today.

The bulk of Brazil's forest cover is found in the Amazon Basin, a mosaic of ecosystems and vegetation types including rainforests (the vast majority), seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas. This region has experienced an exceptional extent of forest loss over the past two generations—an area almost certainly exceeding 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles), or about 15 percent of its total surface area of 4,005,082 square kilometers, has been cleared in the Amazon since 1970, when only 2.4 percent of the Amazon's forests had been lost. The increase in Amazon deforestation in the early 1970s coincided with the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, which opened large forest areas to development by settlers and commercial interests. In more recent years, growing populations in the Amazon region, combined with increased viability of agricultural operations, have caused a further rise in deforestation rates. Since the close of the 1990s, deforestation rates of primary forest cover in Brazil have climbed by 35 percent.

Recent studies indicate that these figures do not include extensive areas degraded by fires and selective logging. Research led by the Woods Hole Research Center and the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology found that each year the amount of forest degraded is roughly equivalent to the amount of forest cleared. The finding is trouble to ecologists because degraded forest has lower levels of biodiversity and is more likely to be cleared in the future. Further, degraded forest is more susceptible to fires.

Why is the Amazon Rainforest Disappearing?

In many tropical countries, the majority of deforestation results from the actions of poor subsistence cultivators. However, in Brazil only about one-third of recent deforestation can be linked to "shifted" cultivators. A large portion of deforestation in Brazil can be attributed to land clearing for pastureland by commercial and speculative interests, misguided government policies, inappropriate World Bank projects, and commercial exploitation of forest resources. For effective action it is imperative that these issues be addressed. Focusing solely on the promotion of sustainable use by local people would neglect the most important forces behind deforestation in Brazil.

Brazilian deforestation is strongly correlated to the economic health of the country: the decline in deforestation from 1988-1991 nicely matched the economic slowdown during the same period, while the rocketing rate of deforestation from 1993-1998 paralleled Brazil's period of rapid economic growth. During lean times, ranchers and developers do not have the cash to rapidly expand their pasturelands and operations, while the government lacks funds to sponsor highways and colonization programs and grant tax breaks and subsidies to forest exploiters.

A relatively small percentage of large landowners clear vast sections of the Amazon for cattle pastureland. Large tracts of forest are cleared and sometimes planted with African savanna grasses for cattle feeding. In many cases, especially during periods of high inflation, land is simply cleared for investment purposes. When pastureland prices exceed forest land prices (a condition made possible by tax incentives that favor pastureland over natural forest), forest clearing is a good hedge against inflation.

Such favorable taxation policies, combined with government subsidized agriculture and colonization programs, encourage the destruction of the Amazon. The practice of low taxes on income derived from agriculture and tax rates that favor pasture over forest overvalues agriculture and pastureland and makes it profitable to convert natural forest for these purposes when it normally would not be so.