The nature offered the Federative Republic of Brazil, or simply, Brazil, with some of the most beautiful world landscapes:

the Amazonian Forest, the biggest tropical forest of the planet; the Pantanal, with its exuberant biodiversity; the Cataracts of the Iguaçu; and the 134 natural reserves spread by all the country. Without counting, of course, the flaring beaches spread in more than the 7,000 kilometers of the Brazilian coast, bathed by the Atlantic Ocean.

Situated in South America, it has the fifth biggest area of the world – 8,514,876.599 km ², and the fifth biggest population - 189 million inhabitants.

It makes boundary with almost all nations of South America (in the north with Venezuela, the Guyana, the Suriname and with the French Overseas Department of the French Guyana; in the south with Uruguay; in the southwest with Argentina and Paraguay; in the west with Bolivia and Peru and, finally, in the northwest with Colombia), excepting only Chile and Equator.

Most of the population is concentrated throughout the coast. The country’s climate is, predominantly, tropical, with exception of the South region, that presents subtropical climate, with well defined stations.

The Brazilian territory is widely covered by forests and areas of cattle and agriculture, even so the most of Brazilians live in great metropolises.

Its diversity is present not only in the natural characteristics, but also in the cultural expressions wealth of the Brazilian, inheritance of a varied mix of races and beliefs, resulting in a friendly and hospitable people, joined by one language, the Portuguese.

But here there is not only descending of indian, Africans and Portuguese. In many localities of the country’s Center-South, the immigrants of other nations form the majority of the population.

Brazil counts on the biggest population of Italian origin, outsided Italy, and the biggest Japanese population, outside Japan, beyond a notable German diaspora. It is a country of multiple races.

Know More…

Brazilian regions:

The regions of Brazil are five groups of units (states or districts) of the federacy, congregated in accordance with the proximity territorial and characteristic geographic (climate, relief, vegetation and hydrography).

The purpose of the division of the country in regions is only economic and statistics. Therefore, it does not have any type of autonomy politics of the regions. The five Brazilian regions are: Northeast, Southeast, South, Center and Norte.

Geography:

Geography is diversified, with half-barren, mountainous landscapes, of tropical, subtropical plain, with climates varying from the dry hinterland northeastern to the rainy equatorial tropical climate, to the cold of the South Region, with tempering climate and frequent frosts. The country possesss, also, the biggest fresh water reserve of the planet, serving as example the Bacia Amazonica and the Aquífero Guarani.

Hydrography:

Brazil shelters the biggest hidrografic net of the world. Its bigger basins are: the Amazonian one; San Francisco; Paraná; Paraguay River and Uruguay River. The rivers Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay form the Silver River (Río de la Plata, in Spanish) also known as the Platinum Basin.

The Amazonian Basin is the biggest of Brazil. In it there are about 1,100 rivers. The main one is the Amazon river, that is born in Peruvian Andes. When entering in Brazil it calls river Solimões and follows until receive the Black River.

Environment:

Brazil is the country of biggest biodiversity of the planet. It was the first signatory of the Biologic Diversity Convention (CDB), and is considered megabiodiverse - the country is responsible for approximately 14% of world-wide biota - for the Conservation International (CI).

Biodiversity can be qualified by the diversity in ecosystems, biological species, endemisms and genetic patrimony.

Due to its continental dimension and to the great geomorfological and climatic variation, Brazil shelters six biomas (Amazônia, Open pasture, Atlantic Bush, Pantanal, Pampas and Caatinga), 49 already classified eco-regions, and incalculable ecosystems.

Bioma terrestrial possesses the richest flora of the world, with up to 56.000 species of already described superior plants; more than 3,000 species of fresh water fish; 517 species of amphibians; 1,677 species of birds; and 530 species of mammals; and can have up to 10 million insects.

Historic site:

The historic site of Brazil is one of oldest existing in America, concentrated all over in the state of Minas Gerais (Ouro Preto, Diamantina, São João del Rei, Sabará, Congonhas, etc) and in other specific zones, as the historical centers of Recife, São Luis, Salvador, Olinda, Santos, etc.

Also it has diversity in archaeological small farms, as the one found in the South of the State of the Piauí: Serra da Capivara. Located in an area of 130 thousand hectares, the park, with more than 600 archaeological small farms, is an example of conservation of the national historic and artistic site that, in 1991, was consecrated world-wide patrimony for UNESCO.

Economy:

Brazil is the eighth bigger world-wide economy in accordance with the Gross Internal Product calculated on the purchase power parity method basis, being the bigger of Latin America, however with GIP per capita inferior to some countries of the same region (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), and possessing an average IDH, occupying 69th world-wide position.

Currently the country is among the 20 biggest exporting of the world, with US$ 142 billion (in April 2007) products and services sold to other countries.

With a growth of two digits per year, since the Fernando Henrique’s government, the expectation is that Brazil in few years is amongst the main exportation platforms of the world. Since 2004, Brazil started to follow the world-wide economy.

The GIP grew 5.7%, the industry grew about 8% and the exportations had surpassed all the expectations.

National language:

Brazil is the only country of Americas with Portuguese language, giving it a distinct cultural identity in relation to the other countries of the continent. The Portuguese is the only spoken language and official writing of Brazil, being able to exist, among regions and states of the country, small variations in the coloquial language.

It is the used language in the institutions of education, the media and businesses. The Portuguese spoken in Brazil is in part different from that one spoken in Portugal and the other Portuguese countries.

The Portuguese of Brazil and the European Portuguese had not evolved uniformly, having some differences in the phonetic and in the orthography, even so the differences between the two variants do not compromise the mutual agreement.