Introduction

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, there has been a spotlight shining on Brazil. Once the only Portuguese colony in South America (hence the only country in the South American subcontinent in which Spanish is not the official language), Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world, both in terms of land mass and population. It will host the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are two of the world’s largest megacities and the country has one of the largest gross domestic products (GDPs) in the world. Moreover, how the Brazilian government addresses environmental management, and manages the pressures on the Amazon rainforests in particular, are central issues in international climate-change debates.