BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
land of extremes, Brazil is the largest tropical country on
earth. More extensive than continental USA and larger by far than
the whole of Europe, it contains a third of the world's tropical
forests. Two thirds of the vast Amazon Basin, the largest river
system on earth, are within its borders and it also accounts for
the major part of the world's largest wetland (the Pantanal),
the most biologically diverse savannah (the Cerrado), and more
mangroves than any other country.
Scientists classify Brazil as one of a handful of socalled
"megadiversity" countries which together account for
between 50 and 80 per cent of the earth's biodiversity. No other
country can boast as many species of primates, parrots, amphibians,
freshwater fish, terrestrial vertebrates, or flowering plants.
It is believed to have the greatest number of insect species as
well.
Brazil is also a country of extremes. Within its borders can be
found some of the most overdeveloped and polluted places
on earth (such as São Paulo), some of the poorest (in northeastern
Brazil), and some of the most biologically diverse (in upper Amazonia).
While Brazilian Amazonia still harbours some of the largest and
least disturbed tracts of forest, the Atlantic Forest of the east
coast - equally rich in species diversity - has been steadily
destroyed over the past 30 years and is now the second most devastated
biome in the world, after Madagascar.
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