The Cabinet of Brazil is the main executive body of the Brazilian government. Also known as the Council of Ministers, the body is made up of senior advisors and ministers of state that are appointed by the President of Brazil. Like most other governments, the ministers of state oversee their respective government ministries. Currently, the cabinet is made up of twenty-three ministries along with six ministry-level officials. These officials include the Chief of Staff, Secretary of Institutional Affairs, and other supporting secretariats. All members report to the President and collaborate amongst themselves to execute the President’s agenda. The current cabinet is made up of politicians from a variety of different political parties aligned with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party.

The Amazon Rainforest is considered to be one of the largest and most important biodiversity hotspots in the world today. It covers an area close to 4.1 square kilometers in the northern region of South America and is home to many unique species that are not found anywhere else in the world. At the heart of the Amazon is the Amazon River, the world’s longest, supplying water for millions of people and around 10 percent of the world’s plant and animal species. Beyond the local ecology, the Amazon Rainforest also acts as a major carbon sink. As a carbon sink, it takes carbon dioxide (a potent greenhouse gas) out of the air and produces oxygen that humans and other animals need to survive. Despite its importance, the region is deeply threatened. 17 percent of the pre-industrial Amazon Rainforest has already been cut down to make way for farmland, with cattle ranching accounting for 80 percent of current deforested land use. This deforestation not only hurts the planet, but also the 2.2 million Indigenous people living in the region. Continued deforestation has pushed Indigenous people deeper into the forest as they fight to preserve the land that their ancestors lived on hundreds of years ago. As the Cabinet of Brazil, delegates will be tasked with fighting to save this important natural habitat, which many of Brazil’s enemies and allies alike consider to be of global strategic interest. However, delegates will also need to consider economic growth and Brazil’s growing meat and farming industries. Together, the Cabinet of Brazil must work with international organizations to chart a future for the world’s largest rainforest.