The Amazon rainforest
By 2013, Brazil’s “dramatic policy-driven reduction in Amazon Basin deforestation” was a “global exception in terms of forest change”, according to scientific journal Science.[192]:852 From 2003 to 2011, compared to all other countries in the world, Brazil had the “largest decline in annual forest loss”, as indicated in the study using high-resolution satellite maps showing global forest cover changes.[192]:850 The annual loss of forest cover decreased from a 2003/2004 record high of more than 40,000 square kilometres (4,000×103 ha; 9.9×106 acres; 15,000 sq mi) to a 2010/2011 low of under 20,000 square kilometres (2,000×103 ha; 4.9×106 acres; 7,700 sq mi),[192]:850 reversing widespread deforestation[192]:852 from the 1970s to 2003.
The Amazon rainforest, the most biodiverse rainforest in the world
However, in 2019, when the Bolsonaro government came to power, the rate of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest increased sharply threatening to reach a tipping point after it the forest will collapse, having severe consequences for the world (see Tipping points in the climate system) and possibly complicating the trade agreement with the European Union.[193]
According to a 2008 GreenPeace article, the natural heritage of Brazil is severely threatened by cattle ranching and agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing, wildlife trade, dams and infrastructure, water pollution, climate change, fire, and invasive species.[188] In many areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by development.[194]
The construction of highways has opened up previously remote areas for agriculture and settlement; dams have flooded valleys and inundated wildlife habitats; and mines have scarred and polluted the landscape.[191][195] At least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region, including the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.[196] In summer 2019, 2 states in Brazil Paraná and Santa Catarina banned fracking, what it is expected to have positive effects on the climate and water quality, because the shale gas and shale oil reserves in the state of Parana are the larger in the southern hemisphere.[197][198]
