In the last two decades, Brazilian society has experienced a deep transformation in its long-established relation with the tropical forests. After centuries of heavy deforestation, an environmental turn in the 1990s generated a frenetic swing towards forest conservation in the last decade, when Brazil was responsible for around 74 percent of the protected areas created worldwide after 2003. The explanation for this historical change is quite complex and has multiple aspects. But the exogenous diffusion of the biodiversity concept in Brazil since the 1980s can be considered a central aspect of it. This article looks at how the biodiversity concept has been used in relation to forest conservation in Brazil.
DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/6192