Human Pressure in the Brazilian Amazon

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By Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Former President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and board member of the World Resources Institute

Brazil has the largest expanse of tropical rainforest in the world, comprising some 40 percent of the world's remaining tropical forest cover. As such, it represents both an extraordinary resource for the people of Brazil, and also an invaluable asset for the people of the world.

Millions of my people depend, directly or indirectly, on the Amazon for their livelihood: farmers sell crops at home and into the world markets; the forest sector accounts for almost 8 percent of our country's annual wealth. And the great Amazon basin sustains millions of indigenous people who depend on the richness of this place to provide for their every need.

That the Southern hemisphere experienced its first hurricane in recorded history last year makes it even more critical that we recognize the value of such ecosystems as the Amazon Basin and the critical service they provide to the global community. They also serve as regulators of climate, vaults of biodiversity, and great natural cleansing engines.

As we become increasingly aware of the important role that large ecosystems play in our current and future lives, we begin to understand just how important it is that we mange them wisely and with a very long-term perspective.

This report provides us with an extraordinary set of tools to use in that effort. The scope and detail of these maps are vital if we are to make the necessary and unavoidable choices in the future to balance the needs of our people in Brazil with the legitimate needs of the world's people increasingly impacted by global environmental change.

We know that the Amazon is subject to significant human pressure, and we can see where it is, its nature, and its impact. What we can also see, however, is that human settlement-human incursions into the Amazon tend to take on a life of their own. Approved and defined development becomes the trigger for what this report terms "incipient" development, that is, emerging pressure on the Amazon that is not planned. The maps here are unequivocal about that.

One of the actions of which I am most proud as President of Brazil was the establishment of the Amazon Region Protected Areas. With our partners, this program recognizes the international environmental reach of the Amazon and it also accommodates the legitimate aspirations of Brazil's most impoverished.

What these incomparable set of maps, and the accompanying report show, however, is that while there is more than sufficient unspoiled area in the Amazon to meet our preservation goals, we must be vigilant to the pressure on the Basin that radiates out from settlements, and, as importantly, the impact of isolated development that disrupts intact ecosystems and does damage in ways we have yet to fully understand. These maps paint a stark and compelling picture.

Brazil is acutely aware of the dual responsibility that nature, geography, colonial exploration, and statecraft have placed upon it. It does not shirk its unique obligation to the world community that the special circumstance of the Amazon Basin demands. Nor does Brazil intend to shirk its duty to its people to provide them with the opportunity for better, productive lives.

Balancing those enormous demands requires wise choices and the tools and information to inform those choices. That is the inestimable value of this report.