Chapter 3

The North- Lost in the Amazon

Have you ever heard about

Amazon rainforest? Let us learn together! The equatorial North,

also known as the Amazon or Amazônia, is

Brazil's largest region with total landmass of

3,869,638 square kilometers, covering 45.3

percent of the national territory. Way too big

and enormous!! It is also the least inhabited

part of the country.

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The region has the largest rainforest of the

world and is called Amazon. The word Amazon

refers to the women warriors who once fought

in inter-tribe in ancient times in this region of

today's North Region of Brazil. It is also the

name of one of the major river that passes

through Brazil and flows eastward into South

Atlantic. This river is also the largest of the

world in terms of water carried in it.

There are also numerous other rivers in the

area. It is one fifth of all the earth's fresh

water reserves. There are two main Amazonian

cities: Manaus, capital of the State of

Amazonas, and Belém, capital of the State of

Pará.

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Over half of the Amazon rainforest( more than

60 per cent) is located in Brazil but it is also

located in other South American countries

including Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia,

Guyana, Bolivia, Suriname and French Guiana.

The Amazon is home to around two and a half

million different insect species as well as over

40000 plant species. There are also a number

of dangerous species living in the Amazon

rainforest such as the “Onça Pintada”

(Brazilian Puma) and anaconda.

Scientists have described between 96,660 and

128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.

More than 1/3 of all species in the world live in

the Amazon Rainforest. To date, an estimated

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438,000 species of plants of economic and

social interest have been registered in the

region with many more remaining to be

discovered or catalogued. This constitutes the

largest collection of living plants and animal

species in the world.

One in five of all birds in the world live in the

rainforests of the Amazon. The diversity of

plant species is the highest on earth with some

experts estimating that one square kilometer

may contain over 75,000 types of trees and

150,000 species of higher plants. To date, at

least 40,000 plant species, 3,000 fish, 1,294

birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378

reptiles have been scientifically classified in

the region.

Do you know why Amazon is a

rainforest?Tropical rainforests are forests with tall

trees, warm climates, and lots of rain. In some

rainforests it rains more than one inch nearly

every day of the year! And the largest

rainforest in the world is the Brazilian Amazon.

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Typical “ rainforests” are called with the name

because of humidity that one finds in the

tropical and equatorial forests, but it surely

does not mean that there is raining all the time,

but they have more rains as compared to the

other forests.

It is to remember that these kinds of forests

are always located near or on equator and are

very hot. They have high temperatures

because this heat is related to the portions of

water that evaporate into the air because of

dense population of trees. These forests also

keep the water for its roots, branches and soil

and this makes it more humid and wet, thus

experts give these kind of forests as tropical

or equatorial forests.

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A rainforest is typically like that of a forest

having trees but that it is of bigger sizes and

have denser branches and trees . It is usually

dark, even during the day, in a rainforest. The

tree sizes up to 120 feet.

The bio-diversity one can experience here is

unparalleled. And the most amazing part is that

all this apparent chaos is actually a very

balanced system, a product of millions of years

of evolution and natural selection.

States in The NorthThe North region of Brazil includes the states

of Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, Pará,

Amapá, and, as of 1988, Tocantins (created

from the northern part of Goiás State, which is

situated in the Center-West). Rondônia,

previously a federal territory, became a state

in 1986. The former federal territories of

Roraima and Amapá were raised to statehood in

1988.

State of Rondônia:Rondônia has borders in the west with the

state of Acre, to the north with the state of

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Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, and in

the south is Bolivia. The capital of Rondônia is

Porto Velho. The state was named after one of

the famous military man of Brazil, Marshal

Rondon. He was most famous for his

exploration of Mato Grosso and the Western

Amazon Basin, and his lifelong support of

Brazilian indigenous populations. The state is

major exporter of Coffee and Cocoa. It is also

an important region for animal husbandry,

specifically cattle. Two reasons have brought

Rondônia to the headlines of newspapers in

Brazil and the world: the fast development of

what just a few decades ago was a region lost in

the middle of the jungle, and the ecological

problems that the development brings along.

State of Acre:The state of Acre is situated in the southwest

of the Northern Region, bordering Amazonas

to the north, Rondônia to the east, Bolivia to

the southeast and the Ucayali Region of Peru to

the south and west. Its capital is the city of Rio

Branco.

Other important places include: Cruzeiro do

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Sul, Feijó, Sena Madureira, Senador Guiomard

and Tarauacá. The state's name is derived

from that of the Rio Acre, which seems to be

of Indian origin. Covered by tropical

rainforest, Acre produces the highest-quality

rubber in Brazil.

State of Amazonas:The state of Amazonas is located in

northwestern corner of Brazil. It is the largest

Brazilian State by area and the 9th largest

country subdivision in the world. The capital of

state of Amazonas is Manaus. It borders from

the north Roraima, Pará, Mato Grosso,

Rondônia and Acre. It also borders Peru,

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Colombia and Venezuela. Amazonas is named

after the Amazon River, and home to the

highest mountain in Brazil, Pico da Neblina,

which stands at 2,994 metres (9,823 ft) above

sea level. An etymological alternative put

forward by historian Karl Lokotsch, the name

derives from an indigenous word, amasunu, that

means "sound of water, water rumbles”.

State of Roraima:Roraima is the northernmost and least

populated state of Brazil, located in the

Amazon region. It borders the states of

Amazonas and Pará, as well as the nations of

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Venezuela and Guyana. The capital of the state

is Boa Vista. Roraima is the Brazilian state with

the fewest municipalities, 15 in total. It is also

famous for Mount Roraima, which includes the

triple border point of Venezuela, Brazil and

Guyana.

State of Pará:The state of Pará is the second largest state of

Brazil, in area, second only to Amazonas. It is

also the most populous Northern state. It

borders the states (clockwise) Amapá,

Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas

and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders

Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it

borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital and

largest city is Belém. Its most famous icons are

the Amazon River and the Amazon Rainforest.

Pará produces rubber (extracted from natural

rubber tree groves), tropical hardwoods such

as mahogany, and minerals such as iron ore and

bauxite.One of the biggest mines of the world

is located in the Crajás Valley, in Pará.

Círio de Nazaré is one of the most important

religious celebrations and tourist attraction in

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the city of Belém, capital of Pará This event

happens on the second Sunday of every

October, and It is known to be the biggest

religious event of the Western Hemisphere.

Another important attraction of the capital is

the marajó-style ceramics, based on pottery

from the extinct Marajó indigenous culture,

whose designs have gained considerable

international fame.

State of Amapá:Amapá is another state of the north region

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which is bounded on the north by a small

portion of Suriname and by French Guiana, on

the northeast by the Atlantic Ocean, on the

south and west by the Brazilian state of Pará,

and on the southeast by the Amazon River.

Formerly a part of Pará state, Amapá was

created as a territory in 1943 and became a

state in 1988, with its capital at Macapá. The

90 percent of the state' s total area is the

Amazon Rainforest. Unexplored forests

occupy 70 percent of its territory. The state's

capital and largest city Macapá can only be

reached by boat or airplane.

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State of Tocantins: This is the state whose name means "Toucan's

beak" in one of the native language of the

region. It is a new state and is developing slowly

and building its important resources: the

rivers Araguaia and Tocantins, the largest

hydro basin entirely inside Brazilian territory.

It also has the characteristics of Amazon. The

Ilha do Bananal, in the southwest of the State,

is the largest fluvial ( produced or found in

river) island in the world. Tocantins is also

home to the Araguaia National Park and the

Carajás Indian reserves. Another highlight is

the Jalapão, about 250 kilometers from the

capital, Palmas. There, the rivers create true

oases in the dry landscape, attracting many

eco-tourists to the region.

People of the NorthMost of the population living in the north have

centered in urban areas. They are largely made

up of Caboclos who are decedents of Indians

and Portuguese. This region received most of

the people who had migrated from the South

and Southeast of the country. In the 20th

century, the North also received great

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migration from the Northeast, who were

working in the rubber plantations of Amazonas

and Acre. Demographic density is the lowest in

this region when we compare it to the other

regions. Most of the population is centered in

urban areas as they are prefer to live in cities

rather than near the forests. The largest

population concentrations are in eastern Pará

State and in Rondônia.

Vegetation:As the north region is entirely covered by the

Amazon Rainforest, only the state of

Tocantins has Savanna like vegetation. The

main vegetation is humid tropical rainforest,

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home to planet's richest biological diversity

called Amazon. There is also the Cerrado,

vegetation in coastal regions while there are

also Hiliean fields. Wet tropical forests are

the most species-rich biome, and tropical

forests in the Americas are consistently more

species rich than the wet forests in Africa and

Asia. As the largest tract of tropical

rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian

rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity.

ClimateThis region has the hottest and humid

Equatorial climate, with intensive rainfalls and

a low thermal amplitude (days and nights are

both hot and humid) is predominant. With

regard to temperatures, annual medium

temperatures ranges from 24o to 26oC. The

rainy period of the area occurs in summer &

autumn, the exception being Roraima and of

the north part of Amazonas, where the

maximum lowest temperatures happen in

winter.

Rubber and Iron in the NorthThe main economic activities of the North of

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Brazil are Energy production, electronic

manufacturing, tourism, vegetal plantation and

extraction, (such as latex, açaí, woods , nuts

and pepper); and mineral extraction of gold,

precious stones, cassiterite and tin (metal); as

well as mining exploitation, mainly iron, at

Carajás Mountain Range (in the State of Pará)

and manganese, at Navio Mountain Range (in

the State of Amapá). The North has served as

a source of forest products ranging from

"backlands drugs" (such as sarsaparilla, cocoa,

cinnamon, and turtle butter) in the colonial

period, to rubber and Brazil nuts in more

recent times. In the mid-twentieth century,

non forest products from mining, farming, and

livestock-raising became more important, and

in the 1980s the lumber industry boomed. In

1990, 6.6 percent of the region's territory was

considered altered by anthropic (man-made).

On boats and Plans in NorthDue to heavy Amazon forests, the

transportation is scarce and most of the

connectivity is done by airplane or by boat,

mainly in the state of Amazonas. There are two

major airports in the region: Belém

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International Airport, serving Belém, and

Eduardo Gomes International Airport, serving

Manaus.. Airplanes are commonly used in small

remote communities and sometimes in the

larger cities that connects North region with

many Brazilian cities and also operates some

international flights. There are only a few

highways in the North region, but many more

are being built and old ones are being restored.

Spices of North:North of Brazil is famous for its indigenous

people and excellent aromatic dishes. We

suggest that when you visit Amazon , you must

also try these adventurous and scrumptious

dishes, that are cooked slowly. There you will

find foods like manioc (a root vegetable) fish,

peanuts, and tropical fruits.

One of the most popular dishes is called “

Caruru” which means “ gumbo”. Caruru is a

Brazilian condiment that is made with okra,

onions and shrimp, palm oil, and toasted

cashews or peanuts. It is frequently enjoyed

with acarajé, which is a deep fried white beans

cake.

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Another interesting dish of the north is Pato

no Tucupi: (duck in tucupi sauce). This is the

signature dish of the state of Pará, it's a

holiday favorite during Pará's festivals (which

take place in October) but if you're in Belém,

capital of Pará, you can find it year-round. It's

basically boiled duck (which was one of the

first animals domesticated by the Amazonian

natives) in a tucupi sauce, which is made from

manioc root. It also often made with jambú, a

plant which, when chewed, causes a faint

numbness in the lips (it's also a traditional

medicinal plant used to dull the pain of a

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toothache). Don't try this one at home, as the

manioc juice is poisonous when raw!

Another traditional holiday food, a proper

maniçoba, takes a week to prepare. First,

cassava (manioc) leaves are ground and cooked

slowly to remove certain toxins. Once they're

safe to eat, other ingredients are added to

make a thick, pasty soup. Maniçoba is a true

indigenous dish and can't be found anywhere

else! Other dishes popular in this region are

Vatapá - a spicy, delicious mixture of bread,

shrimp, red pepper, ginger, peanuts, coconut

milk, palm oil and onions . And Tacacá - a popular

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soup made from jambú, a type of paracress

(Brazilian herb), dried shrimp, yellow pepper

and tucupi, a broth made of manioc root.

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