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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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature