Brazil's Legal Amazon (

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

BLA), in Portuguese Amazônia Legal (), is the largest socio-geographic division in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, containing all nine states in the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

. The government designated this region in 1948 based on its studies on how to plan the economic and social development of the Amazon region.

Area

The official designation Amazônia Legal encompasses all seven brazilian states of the North Region (

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

Amapá Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area ...

, Amazonas,

Pará Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...

Roraima Roraima ( ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil. Located in the country's North Region, it is the northernmost and most geographically and logistically isolated state in Brazil. It is bordered by the state of Pará to the southeast, Amazonas t ...

and Tocantins), as well as most of

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

in the Center-West Region and the western part of

Maranhão Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...

in the Northeast Region. Amazônia Legal is a 5,016,136.3 km² region with around 24 million inhabitants; in other words 59% of the geographic territory of Brazil is part of Amazônia Legal, but only 12.34% of the Brazilian population lives there. The administrative unit was initially established by Federal Law No. 5.173 (Art. 2). Although called ''Amazônia Legal,'' the region overlaps three different

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

s: all of Brazil's Amazon biome, 37% of the

Cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

biome, and 40% of the

Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest Flooded grasslands and savannas, flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but i ...

biome. The main characteristic of the region is the abundant and

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...

, including large sections of

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

. The Legal Amazon is divided into two parts: Western Amazon (Amazônia Ocidental, in portuguese) and Eastern Amazon (Amazônia Oriental, in portuguese). Amazônia Ocidental comprises the states of: Acre, Amazonas, Roraima and, Rondônia. Amazônia Oriental comprises the states of: Pará, Maranhão, Amapá, Tocantins and, Mato Grosso.

Subdivisions

The western region

The western region corresponding to 44.54% of the territorial extension of the Legal Amazon (72% of the Amazon Forest), most preserved part. It is made up of the brazilian states of: Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia and, Roraima. The economy of region is based on: agroindustry, fish farming, livestock farming, food industry, plant and mineral extraction, agriculture and ecotourism, in which economy and sustainability go hand in hand.

The eastern region

The western region is made up of the brazilian states of: Pará, Maranhão, Amapá, Tocantins and, Mato Grosso. This is also formed by 20% of the

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

biome and part of the

pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest Flooded grasslands and savannas, flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but i ...

. Its population is 12.4% of the national population (21,056,532 inhabitants).

Demographics

A total population of 24.7 million inhabitants lives in the area,INSTITUTO BRASILEIRO DE GEOGRAFIA E ESTATÍSTICA (IBGE). 2000. Estimativas populacionais dos municípios em 2009. Acesso em 28/08/2012

/ref> including more than 300,000 Indigenous peoples in South America, indigenous people belonging to more than 170 ethnicities. Among these are many traditional extractive communities. Because of its remoteness, this region was the last to be colonized by Brazilians of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an descent. It still has a very low

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

References

External links

The various Amazons - Instituto Sociambiental

Amazônia Legal
on Noticias Da Amazonia (in Portuguese)
Bolsa Floresta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amazonia Legal Demographics of Brazil North Region, Brazil Amazon basin Central-West Region, Brazil