Beautiful Brazil: Protecting Biodiversity
By Erika Pietrzak, May 22 , 2025
Brazil is one of the most biodiverse nations in the world, boasting around 20 percent of the world’s biodiversity with more than 140 thousand species, including more primate species than any other country (over 150 species.)
[Source: E. O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation]
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services warns of a sixth mass extinction, with an extinction rate one hundred times faster than the average rate of the last ten million years. Today, around 20 percent of all species across the globe are at risk of extinction. With more than 20 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) deriving from biodiverse species, biodiversity loss is a scientific and macroeconomic issue.
Brazil is one of the most biodiverse nations in the world, boasting around 20 percent of the world’s biodiversity with more than 140 thousand species, including more primate species than any other country (over 150 species.) Brazil is also home to six different terrestrial biomes, including the largest tropical rainforest in the world, the Amazon. Indigenous lands comprise more than 12 percent of Brazil’s land, most of which is in the Amazon. In Brazil, 32 percent of land is currently protected.
[Source: Wilson Center]
Brazil’s biodiversity is highly affected by climate change and environmental stressors. In eastern Brazil, 40 percent of the region’s biodiversity is threatened due to climate change, risking extinction of the region’s wildlife by 2060. This includes more than 99 percent of plant families that are expected to be impacted, alongside a projected homogenization of plant species in 40 percent of the Caatinga region as rare species are pushed out and climate change reduces variability. Many trees are predicted to show stunted growth, forming swathes of shrubbery instead of forests and drastically decreasing carbon storage availability. In the Amazon, rising temperatures and decreased precipitation are also detrimental to the ecosystem, and have led to a 37 percent decrease in tree species diversity. This will cause increased intensity of extreme rainfall in the South of the country.
Biodiversity loss in Brazil has several causes, many attributed to humans. Deforestation and habitat destruction are the leading causes of biodiversity loss in the country as the habitats available for these species continue to shrink. The annual losses of areas of the Cerrado, a central Brazilian savanna, increased by 65.9 percent between 2018 and 2023, while “vegetation coverage declined by 58.4 percent in the Pantanal, 19.7 percent in the Brazilian Pampa, and 18.2 percent in the Caatinga.” In 2022, Brazil saw its highest deforestation rates since 2008, with 363 square miles, the size of New York City, destroyed in the first three months of the year. In the last 38 years, the prevalence of Brazil’s native vegetation has declined by 33 percent. While losses in the Amazon receive a more extensive focus, these losses also include 16 percent of natural vegetation in non-forested areas across Brazil. Nearly 12 percent of Brazil’s tree cover was lost between 2001 and 2021, with the majority being cleared to create cattle pastures. The Atlantic Forest that once covered large swathes of Brazil’s coasts stands at just 20 percent of what it used to be.
[Source: Nature.com]
Extreme weather and rising temperatures are wiping out entire regions and putting strain on others. Since the 1990s, Brazil has seen a 460 percent increase in climate-related disasters, with over four thousand annual climate-related disasters in recent decades compared to 725 annual disasters in the 1990s. This is partly driven by the country’s high emission levels that make Brazil one of the world’s top ten emitters. Wildfires have become of particular concern in the Amazon. Brazil experienced a 14 percent increase in wildfires in the first half of 2023, while wildfires globally declined by one percent during that time span. Of Brazil’s burnt areas in 2023, 84 percent of the land held native vegetation.
Extreme floods also threaten Brazil’s biodiversity as “cattle ranching and modern agribusiness have aggravated” their impact by decimating the natural protections that reduce flooding risks. Like many countries seeing the worst impacts of climate change, Brazil is experiencing more prolonged dry periods with extreme flood events in between. These floods pollute waterways due to run-off from cattle farms and prevent waterways from being effectively replenished. Total rainfall is decreasing overall, leading to lasting droughts. For example, 2024 saw a drought in Brazil's Amazon and Pantanal regions, with rainfall 30 to 40 percent below normal. Despite all of this, Brazil cut their disaster relief funding between 2012 and 2023 by an average of 34.6 million USD yearly.
Over the last few decades, we have seen a dramatic increase in average global temperatures, closely mirrored by the rise in temperatures in Brazil, as seen on the graph above. These changes in temperatures impact sensitive species and increase the threat of extreme weather events further.
Illegal trade and poaching are also taking a significant toll on biodiversity in Brazil. Every year, an estimated millions of native animals and wildlife products are trafficked in and out of Brazil. Turtles, jaguars, frogs, fish, and primates are among some of the most popular species. Approximately 400 species of birds are threatened by illegal wildlife trade in Brazil. Smugglers are being caught more often, but still are very difficult to successfully catch because of a lack of investment in legal personnel, vast land masses that cannot be effectively patrolled, and widespread corruption. Criminal enterprises have become more elaborate in their smuggling techniques and technology, including expertly-falsified documents and transporters.
Further research can help Brazil tackle these dire environmental issues. Many regions of Brazil are under-researched, and little is known about their current biodiversity. Only 0.5 percent of current research examines Caatinga, while the Pampa and Pantanal combined represent less than 0.5 percent. Maintaining and strengthening each nation’s Paris Agreement commitments can help protect Brazil’s wildlife and ecosystems by remitigating the effects of climate change. Investing further in the Paris Agreement can help reduce negative environmental impacts in Brazil by 21 percent and halve species extinction risks. These projections reflect the urgent need for reinforced commitment that directly translates to strengthened environmental regulations informed by the framework of the Paris Agreement. Brazil’s wildlife and ecosystems are in great danger, but there is still a lot that we can do to save this precious country’s ecosystems.
Want to take action?
Petition for Protecting Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Support Indigenous Protections in Brazil.
Sign on to Protect Sugarcane in the Amazon.
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