Brazil

Key Information:

Ministries in charge:

Coordination team:

About:

Brazil has been a member of the International Maritime Organization since 1963.

Brazil has a coastline of 7,367 km and its jurisdictional waters correspond to 5.7 million km², comprising its territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

The Brazilian Maritime Authority, through the Directorate of Ports and Coasts of the Brazilian Navy, is one of the Enforcement and Monitoring Authorities for controlling dumping at sea.

Brazil's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is responsible for national environmental policy, including the coastal and marine zone.

In 2019 the MMA launched the National Plan to Combat Marine Litter (PNCLM), which represents a new strategy to face a complex problem which depends on the actions of federal, state and municipal governments, in addition to the productive sector and civil society.

The National Plan to Combat Marine Litter has such priority actions: implement measures for environmentally appropriate final disposal of solid waste; implement solid waste retention devices in drainage channels and watercourses; carry out garbage cleaning and collection actions in mangroves and on sea and rivers; carry out actions to combat garbage in rivers; and provide data and information for the continuous improvement of pollution prevention and environmental recovery actions.

In 2020 the AMB issued Memorandum 11/2020 with initiatives to expand its participation in compliance with the PNCLM, to coordinate actions to combat marine litter, to increase waterway traffic inspection effectively and efficiently, focusing on preventing pollution to protect water supplies and the marine environment.

Nowadays, the PNCLM is under review, which will include a specific chapter for marine plastic waste from ships and fishing vessels.

Ports in Brazil:

The National Waterway Transport Agency (ANTAQ) is responsible for inspecting Brazilian ports. There are currently 175 ports facilities in Brazil, 37 of them are public ports. These facilities include ports, maritime terminals, passenger terminals, fishing terminals and waterway facilities, with movement of approximately 800 million tons of cargo annual.
The most important port in Latin America is the Port of Santos in Brazil. The following ports stand out in terms of cargo handled and importance to the Brazilian economy: Port of Paranaguá, Port of Itapoá, Porto of Navegantes, Port of Rio Grande, Port of Chibatão, Porto of Suape, Port of Itajaí and Port of Rio de Janeiro.

Fisheries:

Marine extractive fishing in Brazil is about 500 thousand tons per year. Brazil has around 24 thousand industrial and semi-industrial fishing boats. Artisanal fishing, on the other hand, has approximately 1 million users registered with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, which involves tens of thousands of small vessels. Along the more than 7,500 km of coastline, there are numerous ports and structures aimed at landing, processing and marketing of fish, including more than 15 large public terminals. There are countless challenges for productive modernization and generation of better living conditions for artisanal fishermen, but “the last frontier” to be explored by the national fishing sector is in the development of its oceanic fishing, in its Economic Exclusive Zone and in international waters.

SBMPL Regulations:

IMO & FAO Regulations:

Brazil ratified the London Convention in 1988 and currently is conducting the internal process of ratifying the 1996 Protocol.