And so to Brazil

I've handed the reins of my blog over to Mark Avery for most of June. Mark's sharing the successes and challenges of saving nature around the world in the run up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit.

Over the past 19 days I have dipped into some of the sustainability issues which should focus the minds of those participating in the Rio+20 UN Conference which begins today. Climate change, feeding the world, water resources, rainforest destruction, harvesting ocean resources and species extinctions are all parts of a global report card where we could, if generous, only give ourselves a rating of ‘could do better and must do better’. The next three days will be a test of global leaders to see whether they can lead, and of our species as a whole to see whether we can learn from our mistakes.

But what of Brazil, this country to which world leaders have returned after 20 years? What can be learned from Brazil?

Brazil is just a line on a map, but it’s a long line and a big country – it is the largest country in the southern hemisphere and the fourth largest (fifth if you call Antarctica a country) on the planet. About one in six (1731) of the world’s bird species are found in Brazil and it has the highest number (122) of globally threatened bird species. SAVE Brasil is the RSPB’s Birdlife International partner in Brazil.

We probably all think, quite rightly, ‘Amazon rainforest’ when we think of Brazil, and Brazil does encompass 60% of the world’s largest rainforest, but there is also the fantastically rich grassland of the Cerrado, the coral reefs of the north and the incredibly rich Atlantic Forest as well. Brazil probably hosts around 4 million species.

Brazil’s human population is over 200 million but that is spread over a vast area and population density is less than a tenth of that of the UK.  Population is growing but is expected to level off by 2050.

Brazil gained widespread praise for introducing protection for the Amazon rainforest in 2006 which greatly reduced the loss of rainforest up until this year when the current president loosened that protection again. A former Brazil Environment Minister, Marina Silva, described Brazil’s current position as ‘the biggest backsliding that we could ever imagine with regards to environmental policies’. 

In 2010 Brazil announced protection measures for the Cerrado – a fantastically rich grassland habitat which is being converted to agricultural use (some of it for biofuel production) but the recent watering down of protection for the Amazon makes Brazil’s environmentalists wonder whether the same might happen in this area.

These examples show that there is nothing easy about finding a sustainable path forward. Like most countries, Brazil has done some good things and some bad things and needs to do much better. 

But let’s end with an example from Brazil which gives us hope for what the next few days might produce. In 2011 Brazil introduced regulation of its tuna fleet to require measures such as deploying streamers to reduce albatross bycatches. When implemented, catches of albatrosses by this fleet will be reduced to virtually zero and these measures will greatly help the status of the threatened black-browed, Tristan and Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses – all species whose breeding populations are concentrated on UK Overseas Territories and which don’t ever nest in Brazil.

Globally, we are faced with unprecedented and escalating threats to our wildlife. But this small example might give us hope that countries can take effective steps to protect species, not just for ‘their own’ species but recognising that wildlife belongs to none of us, and we all have a duty to protect it.

There's a really simple step you can take for tropical rainforests. When you're out shopping, keep an eye open for products carrying the Rainforest Alliance stamp of approval. The green frog ensures that what you're buying has been produced in a sustainable way.

Dr Mark Avery is a former Conservation Director of the RSPB and now is a writer on environmental matters. We’ve asked Mark to write these 20 essays on the run up to the Rio+20 conference. His views are not necessarily those of the RSPB.  Mark writes a daily blog about UK nature conservation issues.