WCS in Brazil

Brazil is the largest country in South America and the world’s most biologically diverse nation. It harbors much of the Amazon—the world’s largest river—and vast expanses of tropical forest. Brazil’s amazing biodiversity is in peril, with large tracts of land being deforested or ecologically degraded, putting habitats and wildlife at risk. In the early 1970s, WCS began supporting wildlife research and conservation efforts in Brazil’s Amazon basin with several field expeditions. The Brazil program expanded significantly in the early ‘90s under the leadership of Brazilian primatologist Márcio Ayres. His work led to the creation of the world’s largest complex of tropical rainforest protected areas. WCS-Brazil continues to focus on the Amazon basin, and we have extended our programs to the Pantanal of southwestern Brazil. The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland, boasting extraordinary wildlife including anacondas, storks, caimans and jaguars.

The Human Aspect
WCS works in Brazil to reconcile human development needs with wildlife and wild land conservation. We engage key private and government groups to help diverse communities—from the people of the Amazon basin to Pantanal ranchers—to conserve wildlife and natural resources while promoting sustainable development and economic progress. Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve (SDR), in the Amazon basin, is a world-renowned example of how to effectively conserve wildlife while boosting the quality of life and economic development of local villages, and the model is being replicated throughout the Amazon.

Threats
The Amazon basin is beset by poorly planned or inappropriate development, deforestation, petroleum exploration, over-hunting, an expanding agricultural frontier, and road construction into remote areas. This region also suffers from many of the threats facing tropical rainforests worldwide—parks that exist only on paper, weak governmental capacity, and lack of enforcement of environmental laws. In the Pantanal, cattle ranchers have co-existed with wildlife for more than two centuries. However, wildlife is increasingly threatened by unsustainable ranching practices and a variety of other factors, including major water control projects. There is cause for hope, however. In recent years, the Brazilian government and people have shown real leadership in sustainable development and in protecting wildlife and establishing protected areas.

WCS Activities

• In the Amazon basin, WCS has worked closely with our key partners, Sociedade Civil Mamirauá and Instituto Piagaçu, to support and implement sustainable development, improve protected area management, and research a wide range of wildlife species.
• Under WCS leadership, strategic conservation corridors in Amazonas have been established.
• To conserve the highly endangered pied bare-faced tamarin, WCS is working in collaboration with Projeto Sauim-de-Coleira at UFAM.
• Training new generations of Brazilian conservation practitioners—from PhDs to community para-biologists—is a key WCS activity.
• We reach out to ranchers to help minimize livestock-carnivore conflict and better conserve wildlife, particularly jaguars, on private lands.
• WCS and its partners UNIDERP and Fundação Manoel de Barros are working with Pantanal cattle ranchers to promote changes in management practices that will reduce pressure on natural resources.
• WCS continues to work to influence government policy on sustainable development and conservation at municipal, state, and national levels.
• WCS researches and conducts surveys on landscape species in the Pantanal, including jaguars and giant otters, to monitor wildlife populations and overall ecosystem health.

Important Next Steps

• Work with Brazilian partners to expand conservation management and sustainable development across Mamirauá SDR, the adjoining Amanã SDR, and the more recently created Piagaçu-Purus SDR.
• Draw on lessons learned in Mamirauá and Amanã to undertake wildlife research, plan for sustainable development, and develop a management plan for Piagaçu-Purus SDR.
• Monitor a range of small-scale conservation initiatives to determine where and how successful projects should be replicated across the region.
• Implement sustainable development programs in ecotourism, logging, fisheries, and wildlife use.
• Address sustainable financing for maintaining key protected areas.
• Continue long-term wildlife research in the Pantanal to find ways to mitigate threats facing key landscape species such as jaguars and giant river otters.
• Collaborate with Pantanal ranchers to test ways to mitigate jaguar depredation of cattle and improve ranch management practices for wildlife.
• Design and develop a comprehensive national conservation program for WCS in Brazil.