Road to Rio Part 1

On the Road to Rio

Although people are still talking about last year’s London Olympics, eyes are already turning to Brazil and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in 2014. Just two years after that the biggest city in the country, Rio de Janeiro, will be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games.

In this issue of Geography in the News we will be looking at Brazil, with a focus on Rio de Janeiro and these spectacular sporting events, in more detail.

Let’s look at Brazil as a whole...

We will first focus on the way in which it has gone from a poor ‘LEDC' country to a global economic powerhouse in a little over 10 years. In the other articles this term we will compare two different cities in Brazil: 

• Rio de Janeiro (often just called ‘Rio’) which provides a very good example of the issues faced by cities in the developing world
• Curitiba, which will host lots of World Cup matches, has developed in a completely different way and is one of the most sustainable cities in the world

Rio de Janeiro

Studying Brazil in schools...

In geography lessons we talk about rich countries (More Economically Developed Countries or MEDCs) and poor world countries (Less Economically Developed Countries or LEDCs).

Wales is a good example of an MEDC – although it might not feel like it, you actually live in one of the richest countries in the world!

Until recently, Brazil was used as an example of an LEDC but, over the past five years or so, its rate of development has been so fast that it no longer fits into this category. Now we talk about Newly-Industrialising Countries or ‘N.I.C.s’, and Brazil is a great example along with Russia, India and China.

On the Road to Rio - Development in Brazil

Three things in particular have helped Brazil to develop in recent years:

• Farming

• Mineral extraction

• Manufacturing

Most LEDCs produce and export primary products (things that come directly from the ground like minerals, timber or food). Brazil has a lot of primary resources, in particular good land for farming and minerals that can be mined from the ground.

The other area of development has been in secondary products (which are made or manufactured) and the south-east of Brazil in particular has seen a huge increase in manufacturing around the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Development in Brazil - Farming

Although large areas of north-east Brazil suffer from annual droughts and most of northern Brazil is covered by the Amazon Rainforest, a lot of the country is actually perfect for agriculture.

Southern Brazil has the perfect climate and fertile soil for arable farming; growing valuable ‘cash crops’ like coffee and sugar. They also produce lots of staple food crops; foods which are eaten every day like wheat, maize and corn. Sugar is also used to make fuel for cars and trucks – find out more in the brain box below.

Central Brazil has huge areas of natural grassland perfect for pastoral farming (breeding animals like cattle).

Development in Brazil - Mineral extraction

Brazil has huge amounts of minerals like iron ore, gold and precious gemstones. These can be exported to other countries which brings money into Brazil from richer countries like the USA.

The largest iron ore mine in the world located in the state of pará in the Carajás Mountains of North Brazil. The mine contains billions of tonnes of iron ore as well as gold, nickel, copper and manganese.

The primary resources are also used to fuel the growth of domestic manufacturing (making things inside Brazil). Charcoal from the rainforests is used as fuel for smelting ore to get pure metals.

Steel is used in car manufacturing and the world’s biggest and purest deposit of iron ore is at Carajas in the Amazon rainforest (pictured above). Bauxite mines provide aluminium to build aircraft for Embraer S.A. – a giant aerospace company.

Development in Brazil - Manufacturing

Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are cities in the main manufacturing region of Brazil. The entire transport system of Brazil is like a gigantic funnel bringing resources to the area to be used in factories.

There are multinational car companies in the region, including major global brands like Toyota (who also start building engines in north Wales this year). Huge steelworks use the iron that comes from Amazonia and there are ship building, heavy engineering and aircraft factories close by.

The part of a country where most of the manufacturing happens is called the core region or economic core; the other regions which are less developed are called peripheral (on the edge) regions.

On the Road to Rio - Changing times

Brazil started to change quickly in 2002 when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (‘Lula’) became president of Brazil.

Lula used to be a steelworker and campaigned for years for better working conditions for low-paid workers. As president, he really focused on improving life for normal Brazilians. This was a big change from previous governments that were corrupt and power hungry.

Because of President Lula’s work, Brazil now provides an example to other South American countries to speed up their development.

The next big development push in Brazil will come as a result of both the 2014 FIFA World Cup football tournament and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. We will look at those events more in Issue 22 of Geography in the News.