Natural resources:
bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum,
tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, timber
Land use: arable land: 6.96% permanent crops: 0.9% other: 92.15% (2001)
Irrigated land:
26,560 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
recurring droughts in northeast; floods and occasional frost in
south
Environment - current issues:
deforestation in Amazon Basin destroys the habitat and endangers a
multitude of plant and animal species indigenous to the area; there
is a lucrative illegal wildlife trade; air and water pollution in
Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and several other large cities; land
degradation and water pollution caused by improper mining
activities; wetland degradation; severe oil spills
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living
Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate
Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered
Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the
Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
largest country in South America; shares common boundaries with
every South American country except Chile and Ecuador
People Brazil
Population:
184,101,109
note: Brazil took a count in August 2000, which reported a
population of 169,799,170; that figure was about 3.3% lower than
projections by the US Census Bureau, and is close to the implied
underenumeration of 4.6% for the 1991 census; estimates for this
country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality
due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant
mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and
changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would
otherwise be expected (July 2004 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 26.6% (male 24,915,902; female 23,966,713)
15-64 years: 67.6% (male 61,739,012; female 62,770,480)
65 years and over: 5.8% (male 4,389,659; female 6,319,343) (2004
est.)