Brazil

• © UNESCO
• Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves

Brazil joined UNESCO in 1946. The UNESCO office in Brasilia, opened in 1964, has regional branches in seven of the country's 26 states.

To support Education for All goals, UNESCO in Brazil is closely associated with large-scale national initiatives, such as the Bolsa Escola programme, which gives grants to children from disadvantaged families; Abrindo Espaços, which keeps schools open on weekends to diminish exclusion of young people; and Proformação, which trains teachers. The UNESCO Office in Brazil also joins cooperation projects with Portuguese-speaking African countries.

Seventeen Brazilian sites, 10 cultural and seven natural, are included on the World Heritage list. To protect Brazil’s exceptional biodiversity (it is home to 20% of the world’s known living species), the World Heritage Biodiversity Programme for Brazil was launched in 2004. The country has six Biosphere Reserves in the Man and his Biosphere (MAB) network, and is involved in a number of projects with UNESCO’s Natural Sciences sector.

The Oral and Graphic Expressions of the Wajapi, an indigenous Amazonian people from the state of Amapá, and the Samba de Roda de Recôncavo (Salvador de Bahia) have been proclaimed Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Brazil has been a member of UNESCO’s Executive Board several times. It has been visited twice by UNESCO’s Director-General.