The water
Bottled water; tap in some cities is treated but not worth the risk. Tap water: Not drinkable.
Brazil
The Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland and the best place on Earth to see wild jaguars.
RegionSouth AmericaCurrencyBRLPowerType A/B/C, 220V (Brazil 127/220V)Tap waterNot drinkable
Strong
Eco Index
What to expect on the ground
At a glance
Food & farming
Brazil is one of the world's great food exporters, the top global supplier of soybeans, beef, coffee, sugar and orange juice, and food makes up only about 5.7 per cent of its merchandise imports (World Bank). Staples of rice,…Read more
Brazil is one of the world's great food exporters, the top global supplier of soybeans, beef, coffee, sugar and orange juice, and food makes up only about 5.7 per cent of its merchandise imports (World Bank). Staples of rice, beans, cassava and tropical fruit are overwhelmingly home-grown. Self-sufficiency is very high.
Local staples
Rice and black beans (feijao), cassava (mandioca and farofa), acai, corn, tropical fruit and churrasco grilled meat.
Markets
Weekly street markets (feiras livres) in most neighbourhoods, plus large municipal markets such as Sao Paulo's Mercadao.
In season
Coffee harvest from May to September, soy from February to May, and tropical fruit year-round.
Wildlife
Brazil is the most biodiverse country on Earth, home to more known species of plants, freshwater fish and amphibians than anywhere else, spanning the Amazon, Pantanal, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado. Endemism is exceptional, from…Read more
Brazil is the most biodiverse country on Earth, home to more known species of plants, freshwater fish and amphibians than anywhere else, spanning the Amazon, Pantanal, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado. Endemism is exceptional, from the golden lion tamarin and muriqui of the Atlantic Forest to the hyacinth macaw. It offers the best wild jaguar viewing on the planet in the Pantanal.
Found nowhere else
High endemism, including the golden lion tamarin and muriqui of the Atlantic Forest and the hyacinth macaw of the Pantanal and Cerrado.
Natural phenomena
Amazon floods Dec–May; the Pantanal is dry (and best for wildlife) Jul–Oct; the coast has its own patterns.
When to go
The May to September dry season for the Amazon, Pantanal wildlife and waterfalls; the north-east coast is good most of the year.
Getting around
Distances are vast, so domestic flights connect the regions, long-distance buses do the heavy lifting, and river boats serve the Amazon.
Good to know
Cards everywhere; BRL. Learn a little Portuguese.
Safety
Solo female travel: Take care. LGBTQ+: Mixed.
Only hereThe Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland and the best place on Earth to see wild jaguars.
Assessed across 10 equally-weighted pillars
The Eco Index, pillar by pillar
75/100
Strong
The Eco Index: Brazil
12 pillars, equally weighted, from published sources. All 12 assessed. Blanks mean unverified, never estimated.
Only here The Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland and the best place on Earth to see wild jaguars.
- Forest cover
- 58.98%
- Land protected
- 30.6%
- Sea protected
- 26.82%
- Organic farmland
- 0.6%
- Found nowhere else
- High endemism, including the golden lion tamarin and muriqui of the Atlantic Forest and the hyacinth macaw of the Pantanal and Cerrado.
- Renewable power
- 89%
- CO2 per person
- 2.2 t
- Air quality (AQI)
- 10
- Cleanest air
- The interior Amazon and highland national parks, away from cities and fire fronts.
- Water from
- Bottled water; tap in some cities is treated but not worth the risk.
- Tap water
- Not drinkable
- Safe drinking water
- 85.77%
- Cleanest water
- Bonito in Mato Grosso do Sul, famed for crystal-clear spring-fed rivers, and remote Amazon headwaters.
- Springs
- Caldas Novas in Goias, one of the world's largest hydrothermal resort areas.
- Food imported
- 5.71%
- In season
- Coffee harvest from May to September, soy from February to May, and tropical fruit year-round.
- Plastic ban
- City-level bans, such as Rio de Janeiro's 2018 to 2019 ban on plastic bags and straws, but no comprehensive national ban.
- Watch out for
- Cattle ranching and soy expansion driving Amazon and Cerrado deforestation, and illegal gold mining with mercury pollution.
- Solo female travel
- Take care
- LGBTQ+ acceptance
- Mixed
- Best months
- May to September
- Getting around
- Distances are vast, so domestic flights connect the regions, long-distance buses do the heavy lifting, and river boats serve the Amazon.
- Power
- Type A/B/C, 220V (Brazil 127/220V)
- Currency
- BRL
| Pillar | Score | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| WaterWhere the water comes from, and whether there is enough of it | 4/5 | Brazil holds some of the greatest freshwater wealth on the planet, from the Amazon basin, which discharges more river water than any other, to the vast Guarani Aquifer and the Sao Francisco… Full assessmentand Parana rivers. Safely managed drinking water reaches about 85.8 per cent of people (World Bank/JMP, 2020), leaving rural and peri-urban sanitation gaps, and the populous south-east has suffered serious droughts such as the 2014 to 2015 Sao Paulo crisis. Supply is abundant overall but unevenly delivered. |
| Food and farmingWhat the island actually grows, and what arrives by boat | 5/5 | Brazil is one of the world's great food exporters, the top global supplier of soybeans, beef, coffee, sugar and orange juice, and food makes up only about 5.7 per cent of its merchandise im… Full assessmentorts (World Bank). Staples of rice, beans, cassava and tropical fruit are overwhelmingly home-grown. Self-sufficiency is very high. |
| Plant based and real foodWhether you can eat unprocessed from local supply | 4/5 | The everyday base of rice and black beans, cassava, corn and an extraordinary range of tropical fruit including acai makes plant-based eating easy and cheap across Brazil. Full assessmentSet against that is a strong churrasco grilled-meat culture, so meat is never far away. Fresh produce markets are abundant in every town. |
| OrganicCertified and chemical free growing, which is not the same thing as plant based | 2/5 | Certified organic land covers only about 0.6 per cent of Brazil's farmland, roughly 1.3 million hectares (FiBL, 2020), a small share of a huge agricultural base. Full assessmentThe sector is growing and Brazil has strong agroecology and family-farming movements. On the certified measure the share remains low. |
| ConservationWhat is protected, and whether protection is enforced | 4/5 | Brazil protects 30.6 per cent of its land and 26.8 per cent of its marine territory (World Bank), a vast estate that includes Amazon conservation units and extensive Indigenous lands acting… Full assessmentas biodiversity strongholds. The critical weakness is enforcement: illegal logging, land-grabbing and fires have driven heavy deforestation, and protection on paper often outruns protection on the ground. Deforestation rates have swung sharply with changes in federal policy. |
| Wildlife and endemicsWhat lives here and nowhere else on earth | 5/5 | Brazil is the most biodiverse country on Earth, home to more known species of plants, freshwater fish and amphibians than anywhere else, spanning the Amazon, Pantanal, Atlantic Forest and C… Full assessmentrrado. Endemism is exceptional, from the golden lion tamarin and muriqui of the Atlantic Forest to the hyacinth macaw. It offers the best wild jaguar viewing on the planet in the Pantanal. |
| Natural materialsWhat you can eat from and carry here instead of plastic, and who still makes it | 3/5 | Brazil is a major cotton producer and exporter, and its Amazon and north-eastern communities work a rich range of natural plant fibres including buriti, tucum, piacava palm and carnauba, al… Full assessmentngside Indigenous weaving and leatherwork. These are living, everyday material traditions rather than heritage displays. The breadth of natural-fibre craft is considerable. |
| Pollution and plasticPlastic law and contamination | 3/5 | Plastic policy is patchy, built on city-level bans such as Rio de Janeiro's 2018 to 2019 ban on plastic bags and straws, with no comprehensive national ban and persistent litter. Full assessmentUrban air is moderate, with a national PM2.5 annual average around 10 micrograms per cubic metre (IQAir, 2024), about twice the WHO guideline, and Amazon fire season causes severe smoke episodes. Enforcement is uneven. |
| Recycling and wasteWhat actually happens to the rubbish once you have thrown it away | 2/5 | Formal municipal recycling in Brazil is low, at a few per cent of waste, but the country has a large informal recycling workforce of catadores and world-leading aluminium-can recovery of ar… Full assessmentund 98 per cent. The gap between weak formal systems and strong informal and can recycling is stark. Overall municipal performance remains modest. |
| Energy and climateClean power, carbon emissions per person and the pace of decarbonisation | 4/5 | Brazil runs one of the cleanest large-scale electricity systems in the world, with around 89 per cent of generation from renewables in 2023, led by hydropower at roughly 60 per cent and fas… Full assessment-growing wind and solar. Per-capita energy emissions are low at about 2.2 tonnes of CO2, among the lowest in the G20. The chief climate concern is not the power grid but land-use change, as Amazon deforestation makes Brazil a large overall emitter, and the country is also expanding offshore oil production. Federal policy has swung back towards curbing deforestation, and Brazil hosts COP30 in Belem in 2025. |
| Culture and peopleIndigenous and living communities, and who the money reaches | 4/5 | Brazil is home to hundreds of Indigenous peoples speaking scores of languages, plus quilombola communities descended from escaped enslaved people, and community-run Amazon ecotourism is gro… Full assessmenting. Land-rights conflict and pressure on Indigenous territories are real and ongoing, and much of the tourism economy is beach and city based. Genuine community tourism exists but sits alongside these tensions. |
| Living heritage and ancestral traditionsNational dance and music, and the ancestral and spiritual traditions still practised | 5/5 | Brazil holds some of the most vibrant living heritage on earth, from capoeira and samba to regional forms such as frevo, maracatu and forro. Full assessmentAfro-Brazilian ancestral traditions including Candomble and Umbanda remain living spiritual practices with deep West and Central African roots. Hundreds of indigenous peoples sustain their own languages, cosmologies and ceremonial practice across the Amazon and beyond. UNESCO recognises Samba de Roda and capoeira as intangible cultural heritage. |
Before you go
Cards everywhere; BRL. Learn a little Portuguese.
Where these figures come from
- World Bank, Forest area (% of land area) AG.LND.FRST.ZS (58.98%), 2023 — source
- World Bank, Terrestrial protected areas ER.LND.PTLD.ZS (30.6%), 2024 — source
- World Bank, Marine protected areas ER.MRN.PTMR.ZS (26.82%), 2021 — source
- Our World in Data / Ember, Share of electricity from renewables (89.0% in 2023, 87.3% in 2024) — source
- World Bank / WHO-UNICEF JMP, safely managed drinking water SH.H2O.SMDW.ZS (85.77%), 2020 — source
- World Bank, Food imports (% of merchandise imports) (5.71%), 2024 — source
- IQAir, World Air Quality Report, Brazil PM2.5 annual average (10 ug/m3), 2024 — source
- FiBL / IFOAM, The World of Organic Agriculture (organic 0.6%, ~1.32M ha), 2020 — source
- Electricity sector in Brazil, generation mix dominated by hydropower, wind, solar and biomass, 2023 — source
- Our World in Data, CO2 country profile: Brazil — source
- Wikipedia, Electricity sector in Brazil (renewables ~89%, hydro ~60%, 2023) — source
- Carbon Brief, The Carbon Brief Profile: Brazil — source
- UNESCO, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (Samba de Roda; Capoeira) — source
- Wikipedia, Culture of Brazil — source
Living heritage and ancestral traditions
The culture still danced, played and believed
Brazil holds some of the most vibrant living heritage on earth, from capoeira and samba to regional forms such as frevo, maracatu and forro. Afro-Brazilian ancestral traditions including Candomble and Umbanda remain living spiritual practices with deep West and Central African roots. Hundreds of indigenous peoples sustain their own languages, cosmologies and ceremonial practice across the Amazon and beyond. UNESCO recognises Samba de Roda and capoeira as intangible cultural heritage.
- Capoeira and samba
- frevo, maracatu, forro and axe
- Candomble and Umbanda ancestral traditions
- Amazonian and other indigenous living practice.
Sleep well, tread lightly
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