A Brazilian haven for wildlife, eight times the size of the UK, home to 30% of the country’s biodiversity and 5% of the world’s species.
No, not the Amazon Rainforest – but the Cerrado. This tropical savannah, about a third the size of its more famous neighbour, is disappearing far more rapidly.
While global attention often centres on deforestation in the Amazon, vast areas of the Cerrado have been cleared for cattle ranching and crop cultivation – especially soybeans. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm.
Known as the “water tank of Brazil,” the Cerrado feeds eight of the country’s twelve largest river basins. But as land use changes, so does the climate. Since the 1980s, rainfall has dropped by a third and temperatures have risen by 1.5°C.
Fires – once used as a controlled method to clear land – are increasingly spreading uncontrollably. According to Indigenous residents of Bacurizinho, 60% of their territory burned this year, destroying homes and livelihoods.
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