Biomes

Brazil’s six key biomes form an interconnected system. The Amazon Rainforest, covering half of the country, is a crucial home for biodiversity and a global climate regulator.

The Atlantic Forest is a biodiverse coastal ecosystem now containing most of Brazil’s population, though about 88% has been lost to human activity. The Cerrado (savanna) contains the headwaters of several South American river basins. The Caatinga (a semi-arid region in Brazil’s northeast), Pampa (grasslands in the south), and Pantanal (wetlands in the center-west) together cover roughly 14% of the country.^1–5

Brazil’s ecological identity is often reduced to the Amazon, but the country is better understood as a continental-scale system composed of six interdependent biomes. Each performs distinct ecological functions, and together they regulate water cycles, climate stability, biodiversity, and food production across much of South America. Viewing these biomes in isolation obscures how disruption in one can cascade across the others.

The Amazon rainforest is the most globally consequential component. Beyond its biodiversity, the forest plays a central role in climate regulation through carbon storage and moisture recycling. Scientific research shows that evapotranspiration from the Amazon generates “flying rivers” of atmospheric moisture that help sustain rainfall across central and southern Brazil.¹ This function directly supports agriculture, hydropower generation, and urban water systems far beyond the forest’s boundaries.

The Cerrado, Brazil’s vast tropical savanna, is equally critical but far less visible internationally. Often described as the country’s “cradle of waters,” it contains the headwaters of major river basins that feed the Amazon, São Francisco, Paraná–Paraguay, and Tocantins systems.² Its deep-rooted vegetation plays a key role in groundwater recharge. Rapid agricultural expansion has made the Cerrado one of Brazil’s most transformed biomes, raising concerns about long-term water security and ecological resilience.

The Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) illustrates a different challenge. Once stretching along most of Brazil’s coastline, it has been reduced to fragments through centuries of urbanization, agriculture, and infrastructure development.³ Despite this loss, it remains one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, with exceptionally high levels of endemism. Its proximity to Brazil’s largest cities makes conservation both more difficult and more urgent, as ecosystem degradation directly affects dense human populations.

The Pantanal, located in the center-west, is the world’s largest tropical wetland and functions as a seasonal floodplain that supports extraordinary concentrations of wildlife.⁴ Its annual flood pulse regulates water quality, fisheries, and regional climate. Recent droughts and fires have exposed its vulnerability to upstream land-use changes and climate variability, underscoring the biome’s dependence on ecological processes beyond its borders.

The Caatinga and Pampa complete the system. The Caatinga, the only biome found exclusively in Brazil, is a semi-arid region adapted to extreme climatic variability and home to millions of people who rely on fragile ecosystems.⁵ The southern Pampa, composed of grasslands shaped by grazing and fire, supports cattle culture and biodiversity that is often overlooked in conservation strategies. Together, these biomes highlight that Brazil’s environmental future depends not on protecting a single forest, but on managing an interconnected ecological network at continental scale.