Brazilian Cerrado Fast Disappearing Under Expanding Agriculture, Development

“Most biologically rich savannah on earth” has given way to the crops and cattle of Brazil’s “agricultural miracle”

Document created 23 August 2010, last updated 04 October 2010

The Cerrado is a vast area of about 2 m sq km or 772,200 sq miles spreading south and east of the Amazon basin, most of it in Brazil.

The original vegetation type is savannah and dry woodland. With thousands of species of plants and hundreds of species of vertebrate animals, the Cerrado is considered the biologically richest of all tropical savannah lands on earth. (See Conservation International, WWF, The Nature Conservancy, links below).

Large-scale agricultural expansion into the Cerrado started in the 1960s. This region now contributes a major proportion of Brazil's production of crops, cattle and charcoal. Human settlement, with town and road construction, has also had a significant environmental impact. In total it is nearly 80% of the original land cover of the Cerrado that has been either lost or modified (see Conservation International, link below). Current forecasts point to continuing agricultural expansion, and to the concurrent complete destruction of the original Cerrado's environment within only a few decades (BBC, also Irish Times, links below).

However the Bazilian government has recently announced an “Action Plan to Prevent and Control Deforestation and Wildfires in the Cerrado Biome”, with a budget of $200m (see Mongabay, 15 Sep 2010, link below).

Links to external websites:

[wb1] BBC - Aug 10 - Listen to: Saving Cerrado - "For One Planet, Tim Hirsch visits the Cerrado to hear from local people who are trying to save their land by making it pay..."

[wb2] Conservation International - See webpage: "Cerrado: Threats"

[wb3] Nature Conservancy - See webpage: "Places we protect: the Cerrado"

[wb4] WWF - See webpage: "Environmental problems in Brazil"

[wb5] Mongabay - 4 Apr 10 - Mysterious decline of small mammals in Bolivia may be linked to burning Amazon - During ten years surveying small mammal populations in Bolivia's cerrado, Dr. Louise Emmons with the Smithsonian Institute found that the mammals were suffering pr

[wb6] Mongabay - 15 Sep 10 - Brazil's cerrado wins protection, but will it be enough to save the wildlife-rich grassland?

[wb7] Irish Times - 28 Sep 10 - Savannah being destroyed by farming - In its drive to become the world leader in agriculture, Brazil is sacrificing a vast stretch of savannah