Digital Guide

C

Environmentalist

Roberto Burle Marx needs native plants for his ever-more numerous and increasingly large-scale projects, and in quantities exceeding their availability on the market. He begins to organise expeditions to various regions of Brazil, collecting plants with his team. They identify over a hundred species that had not previously been scientifically catalogued; about thirty now carry the suffix “burle-marxii” in their scientific name. In the garden that is known as the Sítio Roberto Burle Marx today, he establishes a plant collection, comprising around 3,500 species from Brazil and from other parts of the world. Some of these plants are extremely rare, and have disappeared from the wild due to logging, industrialisation and agriculture. As early as the 1960s, Burle Marx begins to take a stand against the threats posed to native biodiversity by the exploitation of natural resources, and against habitat loss caused by human settlement, industry and monocultures. He becomes a member of the Federal Council of Culture under the military dictatorship established in 1964. In this capacity, he makes submissions against deforestation and the destruction of species, phenomena representing the flip side of Brazil’s “economic miracle”. This makes him one of the first environmentalists to fight for Brazil’s biodiversity and warn of the consequences of its loss for the Earth’s climate. His concerns are as vital today as they were sixty years ago.

Brazil’s Six Ecoregions

Amazon
Almost half of Brazil is covered by the Amazon rainforest, remarkable for its tremendously diverse flora and fauna. It is the largest continuous rainforest on Earth and plays a vital role in regulating the climate. The Amazon faces numerous threats, including infrastructure projects, mining, deforestation and fires, some of which are deliberately started by cattle ranchers and monoculture farmers. In 1983, Burle Marx and his team would organise a two-month expedition through the Amazonas region, subsequently giving lectures to bring attention to the forest’s grievous situation.

Pampa
The Pampa, in Brazil’s south, has a mild to subtropical climate and is mainly covered by grasslands and steppes, with few trees.

Pantanal
The Pantanal is a tropical wetland region, with alternating dry and flood seasons. The area is notable for its exceptionally high wildlife density (jaguars, caimans, capybaras, macaws).

Cerrado
The ecoregion known as the Cerrado accounts for just under a quarter of Brazil’s territory. This tropical savannah has a rainy and a dry season, and its vegetation consists of grasses, shrubs and small trees. The Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse savannah and an important headwater region for many of Brazil’s rivers. Its biodiversity has been severely reduced by intensive agriculture and the overexploitation of water resources. The Cerrado is more poorly protected than the Amazon, and its unspoilt areas are shrinking rapidly.

Caatinga
The Caatinga, covering around ten percent of Brazil’s total area, is a hot, dry savannah that experiences long periods of drought. Cactuses, thorn bushes and arid forests predominate. The area also faces increasing desertification.

Mata Atlântica
The tropical to subtropical rainforest along Brazil’s coast is known as Mata Atlântica, and comprises around thirteen percent of Brazil’s total area. The region has a variety of vegetation zones, including dense rainforests, cloud forests, mangroves and more arid-type coastal vegetation. This zone is also where Brazil’s main urban agglomerations are located. Due to urbanization, industry and agriculture, less than ten percent of the original land area remains. In terms of biodiversity, it is one of the world’s most badly decimated ecoregions.

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