Given its abundance and variety of natural resources – accounting for about 20 per cent of the world’s known species – Brazil has an extraordinary potential to become a world leader in the bioeconomy, creating a vibrant innovation environment, preserving the natural ecosystem and boosting local communities. What would the transition to the bioeconomy look like for the Amazon, and what new high-value products and services could be created using this model? How can technology -including AI, satellites, the cloud – be enablers of this transition? What is required in terms of policies, infrastructure and investment to make it happen?

Less predictable rainfall patterns are causing water supply problems in Brazil’s biggest city

When it rains in São Paulo, it pours. During tropical storms that punctuate late afternoons in summer, drains overflow on to pavements and floods are not uncommon.

High-tech agribusinesses cut down on chemicals while unscrupulous ranchers cut down trees

Much like oil before it, realising the economic potential requires research, investment and oversight

Scientists are racing to code the genetic sequences of all complex species on the planet

While deforestation has surged under Bolsonaro, scientists are racing to find ways to conserve the rainforest

Researchers warn many of the region’s biological assets are at risk of being lost forever

The nature of environmental and natural resource security has changed dramatically since the 1990s. Over the last two decades, the global economy, geared towards exploiting natural resources to serve an exponentially growing population of consumers, has far exceeded the carrying capacity of the planet. The depth of the transformation has been so profound that it has pushed Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Indeed, scientists have identified planetary boundaries that it would be unwise to transgress, and we seem to be in the process of crossing many of them right now.

The Amazon urgently needs a Fourth Industrial Revolution