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5.3 Land Use and Occupation of the Brazilian Tropical
Coastal Wetlands: Impacts and Current Scenarios
The approximately 10,800 km of Atlantic coastline places Brazil among the countries with the largest coastal areas of the world. This latitudinal coverage, with
extensive climatic and geomorphological variety, is one of the main factors that
explain the diversity of species and ecosystems along the Brazilian coastline.
Despite its size, most of the Brazilian coastal wetlands are characterized by low
nutrient concentrations and reduced productivity, contradicting the common sense
that the region is an abundant and inexhaustible source of resources (Mma 2010).
Although the fishing activity in Brazil has unquestionable socioeconomic importance as a provider of animal protein, while generating around 800,000 jobs, for
four million people that are, directly or indirectly, linked to the activity. In recent
years, studies have revealed this mistaken perception regarding the abundance or
inexorability of these resources (Mma 2010).
The Coastal Zone is, strictly speaking, an ecological transition region and has an
important role for the development and reproduction of many species and genetic
exchanges that occur between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Moreover, the
Brazilian Coastal Zone has significant territorial overlap with the Amazon area and
the Atlantic Forest, and to a lesser extent, with the Caatinga, Cerrado and the
Pampas, being not an ecological unit but a mosaic of ecotone ecosystems with
highly complex ecological environments, extremely important to sustain life.
Besides the tropical and subtropical characteristics prevalent along the entire
coast of the country, the oceanographic and climatological conditions of the region
provide distinctive characteristics to biodiversity. The sea area by the coast has
warm waters on the north and east coasts, and cold water on the south coast, supporting a wide variety of ecosystems, such as dunes, beaches, marshes and wetlands, estuaries, sandbanks, mangroves, rocky shores, lagoons and salt marshes,
housing numerous species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic and in
danger (Mma 2002a, b).
Nutrient concentrations and other environmental conditions, such as thermal gradients and salinity alterations – under extraordinary conditions of shelter and support to the early stages of reproduction and nutrition of most species that live in the
oceans –, make the coastal tropical wetlands environments one of the main targets
of environmental preservation to preserve biodiversity.
However, following the global trend, the Brazilian coastal wetlands are also
marked by population conglomerates and productive activities. Data from the last
census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Ibge 2010) show the
two important processes that influence how Brazilian geographical spaces have
been configured in the past decade (2000–2010): the inland-advancing process,
driven by agriculture and livestock expansion, and the process of “coast revaluing”
related to the expansion of economic activities linked to tourism, oil exploration and
port and air logistics, that go “beyond population density and urban centers located
near the sea, reinforce the historical process of coastline urbanization” (Ibge 2010).
S.O. Souza et al.
5.3 Land Use and Occupation of the Brazilian Tropical
Coastal Wetlands: Impacts and Current Scenarios
The approximately 10,800 km of Atlantic coastline places Brazil among the countries with the largest coastal areas of the world. This latitudinal coverage, with
extensive climatic and geomorphological variety, is one of the main factors that
explain the diversity of species and ecosystems along the Brazilian coastline.
Despite its size, most of the Brazilian coastal wetlands are characterized by low
nutrient concentrations and reduced productivity, contradicting the common sense
that the region is an abundant and inexhaustible source of resources (Mma 2010).
Although the fishing activity in Brazil has unquestionable socioeconomic importance as a provider of animal protein, while generating around 800,000 jobs, for
four million people that are, directly or indirectly, linked to the activity. In recent
years, studies have revealed this mistaken perception regarding the abundance or
inexorability of these resources (Mma 2010).
The Coastal Zone is, strictly speaking, an ecological transition region and has an
important role for the development and reproduction of many species and genetic
exchanges that occur between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Moreover, the
Brazilian Coastal Zone has significant territorial overlap with the Amazon area and
the Atlantic Forest, and to a lesser extent, with the Caatinga, Cerrado and the
Pampas, being not an ecological unit but a mosaic of ecotone ecosystems with
highly complex ecological environments, extremely important to sustain life.
Besides the tropical and subtropical characteristics prevalent along the entire
coast of the country, the oceanographic and climatological conditions of the region
provide distinctive characteristics to biodiversity. The sea area by the coast has
warm waters on the north and east coasts, and cold water on the south coast, supporting a wide variety of ecosystems, such as dunes, beaches, marshes and wetlands, estuaries, sandbanks, mangroves, rocky shores, lagoons and salt marshes,
housing numerous species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic and in
danger (Mma 2002a, b).
Nutrient concentrations and other environmental conditions, such as thermal gradients and salinity alterations – under extraordinary conditions of shelter and support to the early stages of reproduction and nutrition of most species that live in the
oceans –, make the coastal tropical wetlands environments one of the main targets
of environmental preservation to preserve biodiversity.
However, following the global trend, the Brazilian coastal wetlands are also
marked by population conglomerates and productive activities. Data from the last
census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Ibge 2010) show the
two important processes that influence how Brazilian geographical spaces have
been configured in the past decade (2000–2010): the inland-advancing process,
driven by agriculture and livestock expansion, and the process of “coast revaluing”
related to the expansion of economic activities linked to tourism, oil exploration and
port and air logistics, that go “beyond population density and urban centers located
near the sea, reinforce the historical process of coastline urbanization” (Ibge 2010).
S.O. Souza et al.