The Brazilian government on Wednesday (Apr. 1) presented a new strategy to make biodiversity one of the country’s main economic assets for development by 2035. The National Bioeconomy Development Plan (PNDBio) is expected to encompass everyone from extractive workers to industry.

Among the goals are expanding payments for environmental services, incorporating new herbal medicines into Brazil’s national public health care network – the SUS – and granting new conservation units to promote ecotourism.

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The plan is organized into three pillars – socio-bioeconomics and environmental assets, competitive bioindustrialization, and sustainable biomass production.

Carina Pimenta, national secretary for the bioeconomy at the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, notes that this is a national development strategy that views environmental assets not only from the perspective of conservation, but also in terms of how to utilize them within economic activities, “generating a new cycle of prosperity.”

According to Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva, the bioeconomy envisioned for Brazil is for everyone.

“There is a place for extractive industries, for cosmetics manufacturers, and for pharmaceutical companies. This is bioeconomy for a new cycle of prosperity,” she added.

Environmental services

The first pillar outlines the development of a community-based socio-bioeconomic business ecosystem. Among the initiatives are support for 6 thousand enterprises, a 20 percent increase in contracts under the financing line of the national program for strengthening family farming aimed at low-income producers, and a doubling of the gross annual output derived from socio-biodiversity.

Also planned is the promotion of environmental and socio-cultural services provided by traditional peoples and communities through payments to 300 thousand beneficiaries. Also proposed is a 50-percent increase by 2035 in the number of organizations eligible to receive benefits from the sharing of genetic resources. Genetic heritage is the set of data contained in plants, animals, and microorganisms used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and other industries. Current legislation already stipulates that traditional communities, such as indigenous peoples, receive a share of these profits. The goal is to expand this distribution.

The initiative aims to restore 2.3 million hectares of native vegetation integrated into bioeconomy chains, in addition to consolidating 30 restoration territories across the country. The efforts also include granting 60 conservation units to promote ecotourism and expanding forest management areas to 5.28 million hectares.

Industry

Under bioindustrialization, the plan aims to focus on health and wellness through the sustainable use of genetic resources. It aims to incorporate new herbal medicines into the SUS and expand the share of such medicines in Brazil’s pharmaceutical industry revenue by five percent.

Circular economy

The national plan also highlights, in its third pillar, the use of biomass derived from agricultural and forestry products in the national industry. Biomass is any organic material of plant or animal origin that can be used as an energy source. It also includes the development of the renewable biochemical industry, such as the production of biofuels, like ethanol.

“Innovative, competitive, export-oriented, and green – that’s what makes for a sustainable industry,” said Geraldo Alckmin, vice-president and minister of development, industry, trade, and services.

PNDBio is the result of two years of work involving 16 ministries, nonprofits, academia, and the private sector.

After undergoing public consultation with over 900 contributions, the public policy was finalized and approved on March 5, 2026, defining 185 strategic actions.

Brazil’s unemployment rate for the quarter ending in February reached 5.8 percent, higher than the moving average for the quarter ending in November, when it stood at 5.2 percent.

Despite the increase, the result is the lowest for a quarter ending in February since 2012, when the time series of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) began. In the same quarter of 2025, the rate was 6.8 percent.

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In the quarter ending in February, Brazil had 102.1 million people in employment and 6.2 million looking for work.

The data were released on Friday (Mar. 27) by the statistics bureau IBGE.

Criteria

The IBGE survey tracks labor market trends for people aged 14 and older and takes into account all forms of employment – including formal, temporary, and self-employment, for example. 

According to the institute’s criteria, only those who actively sought a job 30 days prior to the survey are considered unemployed. The survey visits 211 thousand households across all Brazilian states and the Federal District.

The highest unemployment rate ever recorded in the series that began in 2012 was 14.9 percent, reached in two periods – in the rolling quarters ending in September 2020 and March 2021, both during the COVID-19 pandemic.