Brazil is home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species, but its ecological paradises are facing growing threats from big business and criminal outfits who have found a champion in far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, experts say.
Brazil’s rich biodiversity is under attack from multiple fronts, including landowners who cut down multi-storied trees to make way for soya bean crops, clandestine miners who pollute rivers used by indigenous people, and timber traffickers who decimate valuable species.
“It sends a message to farmers and especially organized crime mafias who invade the land to occupy it,” said Emilio La Rovere, head of the environmental studies laboratory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Often described as the “lungs of the planet,” the Amazon has an impressive number of species: 40 000 plants, 3 000 freshwater fish, nearly 1 300 birds, and 370 reptiles.
In many cases, newcomers take over land, including areas demarcated for indigenous people or national parks, with a few cows. That is enough to earn “productive land” certification that allows the owner to sell the land after 10 years. Deforestation contaminates aquatic ecosystems and contributes to climate change by releasing carbon into the atmosphere.The less known Pantanal in Brazil’s center-west is another huge but fragile biodiversity sanctuary, with the largest concentration of wildlife in South America. It has more than 665 species of birds alone.
Here too, though, biodiversity is threatened by deforestation, soil erosion, farm chemicals polluting the waterways, overfishing, hydroelectric dams that disturb the ecosystem, mining, and tourism.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Neymar says he was wrong to hit fan after cup final defeatBrazil star loses his cool after fan insults PSG players
Read more »
Attempt to deregister AMCU is a political attack, says Mathunjwa | IOL NewsPresident of Amcu, Joseph Mathunjwa, said that the planned deregistration of the union by the Registrar of Labour Relations was a 'political attack'.
Read more »
US reels from deadly synagogue attack on final day of Passover | IOL NewsA teenage gunman who wrote a hate-filled manifesto opened fire at a synagogue in California on Saturday.
Read more »
ANC in Limpopo distances itself from alleged attack on BPSA’s bus - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.
Read more »
WATCH: Bo-Kaap residents describe horror knife attack on French UCT student | IOL NewsA 20-year-old French woman studying at UCT is recovering in hospital after she was stabbed and mugged in the historic Bo-Kaap.
Read more »
Motive of shooter in California synagogue attack under scrutiny | IOL NewsPolice were examining the motive of the man accused of a deadly shooting at a synagogue in Southern California, after determining the 19-year-old gunman acted alone.
Read more »
Death toll in Nigeria attack rises to 30: Residents - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.Residents of a northeastern Nigerian village torched by Boko Haram fighters said Wednesday that nine more bodies of their relatives had been found, taking the total massacred to 30.
Read more »
How imports threaten survival of SA’s small chicken farmersSA Poultry Association says half of small chicken farmers have gone out of business in the past six months due to imports from the EU and Brazil
Read more »
How imports threaten survival of SA’s small chicken farmersSA Poultry Association says half of small chicken farmers have gone out of business in the past six months due to imports from the EU and Brazil
Read more »
World turns out for record 'Avengers: Endgame' movie debutThe three-hour action spectacle that revealed the fates of Iron Man, Thor and other popular comic-book heroes also made history in China, Brazil, France, Egypt, South Africa and 38 other markets.
Read more »
South Africa is ripe for right-wing populist movementsCOMMENT: What if the real danger facing South Africa is an emerging far-right populism that has mass appeal? What if this election marks a shift towards the development of our own Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil or Donald Trump in the United States?
Read more »