CONSERVATION, POLITICS AND EXPERIENCES IN BRAZILIAN BIOMES
Christian Brannstrom
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The increasing sophisticated environment debate in Brazil has resulted in notable
developments in its various biomes. While conservation politics in the Amazon biome still attracts
most attention, increasing concern is being devoted to the pressing need to create viable model for
environmental conservation in the Atlantic Forest (~ 1.2 million km2), the Caatinga (~ 740,000 km2),
the Cerrado (~ 2 million km2), the Pantanal (~ 140,000 km2), and the South Steppes (~ 200,000
km2).
‘Priority-setting’ workshops for individual biomes, sponsored by the Ministry of the
Environment, Global Environment Fund and various NGOs, have become the preferred fora for
debating conservation models. The objective of the workshops is to gather activists, academic and
technicians to identify biodiversity ‘hotpots’ and priorities to scale conservation funds.
The most recent workshop was held in May 2000 for the Caatinga, the semi-arid biome in
northeastern Brazil which, according to the Nature Conservancy, ‘probably is the Brazilian biome
most threatened and most transformed by human action’. Participants at the five-day workshop
concluded that over the next five years conservation units should cover at least ten per cent of the
Caatinga. At present, however, less than two per cent of the Caatinga is classified as a
conservation unit with restrict use while agricultural activities affect approximately 28 per cent of
the Caatinga. The few existing conservation units confront problems of weak land-tenure status,
lack of funding, persistence of ‘traditional hunting for subsistence’, uncontrolled use of wood
biomass for fuelwood and fire.
The Pantanal, a vast floodplain in west-central Brazil, was named in November 2000 a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, in the past few years the Pantanal received world-wide
attention because of the proposed Paraguay-Paraná Watergate which would have drastically
reduced the wetland’s flooded area. Other threats included reported bioaccumulation for mercury
in invertebrates, fishes and birds. Analysts at the inter-American development Bank (IDB), claim
that the Pantanal’s increasing ‘frequency and magnitude’ of floods has caused reduction in
incomes among the region’s fishing communities. Changes in flood regimes are thought to result
from soil erosion in the upper Pantanal and sedimentation in the floodplain, soil and water pollution
caused by agro-chemicals and mining waste, untreated sewage and industrial waste, road
construction and over-use of fisheries. This analysis justified the August 2000 approval of the US$
400 million (of which IDB would fund half), eight-year Pantanal program.
For the Amazon, the Ministry of the Environment’s sustainable development policy unit is
promoting land-use zoning as a policy model for conservation. In November 2000 the Ministry
freed R$ 840,000 from PPG7 funds to develop a zoning plan for the state of Roraima. Land-use
zoning or ZEE (Z) in its Portuguese acronym (Zoneamento Ecológico-Econômico) is seen as
necessary for future government investments in Amazonia, in spite of the fact that, among Legal
Amazonia’s nine states, only Rondônia, Acre, and Tocantins have completed their ZEEs.
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1.
Qual o objetivo das oficinas (workshops) mencionadas no texto?
2.
Qual a conclusão dos participantes da oficina de cinco dias mencionada no texto?
3.
Que problemas enfrentam as poucas áreas de preservação existentes na Caatinga?
Mencione pelo menos duas.
4.
Por que o pantanal tem recebido atenção mundial nos últimos anos?
5.
O que os analistas do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID) afirmam estar
acontecendo no Pantanal?
6.
Marque (V) para verdadeiro ou (F) para falso nas seguintes afirmações sobre o texto.
a)
O modelo de conservação por zonas ainda não foi implementado pelo governo.
b)
As mudanças no curso das enchentes são devido à bioacumulação de mercúrio nos
invertebrados, peixes e pássaros.
c)
O uso da terra por zoneamento é visto como necessário para o futuros investimentos do
governo na Amazonia
d)
Em Novembro de 2000 foi liberado pelo governo oitocentos e quarenta mil reais para
desenvolver o plano de zoneamento para o estado de Roraima. O que significa a palavra
‘biome’. Explique com suas palavras.
7.
Duas conjunções e a idéia que elas expressam
8.
A palavra its (linha 1) refere-se a: _____________________
9.
A palavra which (linha 19) refere-se a: ____________________
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