Deforestation Graphs

Butler, Rhett A. "Deforestation Charts." Mongabay.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.mongabay.com/general_tables.htm>.

What Should Be Done?

To improve human impacts on the Cerrado, existing government regulations requiring 20% of the farmers' land to be forested must be fully enforced. Additional protected areas and national parks preserving the natural ecosystem should be instituted in advance of soybean frontiers as well as stricter government regulations concerning land use. The expansion of soybean production has been artificially induced by government subsidies. If these were eliminated, or at least reduced, natural demand for soybeans would clear the market to reach a true equilibrium of production. Because little is known of the environmental issues in the Cerrado, studies and experiments highlighting the growing consequences of altered land should be performed. Farmers should discover ways to raise cattle and produce soybeans on already cleared land, eliminating the need for small farmers to clear more land from the natural biome. Finally, the large-scale production of soybeans should be transformed to sustainable, small-scale production, employing more natives and decreasing the need for harmful agrochemicals. If some or all of these steps are done in conjunction, I think Brazil can slow and eventually reverse the human impacts on the Cerrado.

Likely Future Prospects

Although deforestation went highly unnoticed in the Cerrado during its 50 years of agricultural expansion, various nongovernmental organizations have recently begun to address the problem and to urge the  government to do the same. Although only 5.5% of the total land area is currently protected, this number is on the rise as the government has created 25 thousand square km of national parks and other protected areas, has isolated 5.8 million hectares of indigenous territories and implemented a land use plan that balances environmental and economic needs. Cultivation of alternative products that utilize the Cerrado's natural qualities has been suggested by some and a group of environmentalists, scientists and economists are drafting a plan to produce sugarcane to create ethanol in an environmentally safe and sustainable manner. While the degradation of the ecosystem has accelerated, few steps have been taken up to today, but if already-existing government regulations are enforced and new ones are developed, which seems to be the  trend,  I believe the area will be on its way to recovery. The future prospects are encouraging as deforestation gains awareness and Brazil's state continues to grow.

Current Human Impacts

In 1998 the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment suggested: "The expansion of agriculture and ranching, at the rate of three percent per year in terms of land cover, has already meant the economic conversion of 40% of the total area, with a total loss of the original vegetation" (Wolford). The Cerrado continues to hold its place as the leading exporter of beef and the second largest soybean producer in the world. This rapid economic expansion has been encouraged by large-scale farmers, newspapers journalists, policymakers and academics who argue that large-scale agricultural production is the only response to the savanna's natural environment. In addition, land is noticeably cheaper, up to as much as nine times cheaper than land in the US Corn Belt. Covering 68 percent of total deforested area in the Cerrado, cattle ranching remains the largest use of cleared land while 58% of the country's total soy production is done here. A growing threat today is somewhat paradoxical. With soaring prices of petroleum, scientists are moving fast to develop biofuels, one of which is ethanol. Current estimates show sugarcane planted area increasing from the current 3 million to 9.7 million by 2017.

What does all of this expansion mean for the Cerrado? Unlike the Amazonian deforestation, the effects of these agro-pastoral landscapes have been infrequently examined. There are few restrictions on the use of land or water resources, the area was not included for federal protection in the 1988 Constitution and the rules that are in place protecting it go mostly unenforced. All this combined has led to "serious environmental concerns about soil degradation, water contamination, increased CO2 emissions and loss of biodiversity" (Wolford). The biome's floodplain is exposed and susceptible to high doses of agrochemicals used to combat diseases, insects and weeds. The fact remains that while Amazonian deforestation is on the decline, Cerrado exploitation is pushing forward.

Historical State of Cerrado

The Cerrado, meaning "closed" or "dense" in Portuguese, is a tropical savanna located within the center-west region of Brazil. It contains forests, woodlands and grasslands and spans approximately 204 million hectares, or 25% of Brazil's land area. Due to high concentrations of aluminum, the soils of the cerrado are relatively toxic, a fact which secured its title as the  wasteland of Brazil until the 1950's. This isolation from human intervention allowed the world's biologically richest savanna  to protect its high level of species diversity, including its 4,400 endemic plant species and 117 endemic terrestrial vertebrate species (Wolford). Jaguars, maned wolves, giant anteaters, giant armadillos and marsh deer wander the plains while 306 different species of birds roam the skies.

          

The first colonists arrived in the 1800s searching for gold and precious stones. Their settlements, roads and railways led to the development of cattle ranches, the first major human impact on the ecosystem and its primary economic activity until the 1950s. From the 1960s on, state and allied international development interests encouraged scientists to develop technology to prepare the Cerrado for agriculture while financing "Cerrado land clearing, production, commercialization, capital goods acquisition and harvest" (Jepson). The highly acidic soil was transformed using fertilizer, high quantities of limestone and water, sending Brazil on its way to becoming a global agricultural power. As environmentalists became alarmed by deforestation in Amazonia, policymakers suggested Cerrado as a sustainable alternative. As scientists developed seeds adapted to thrive in the savanna biome, "in the span of 25 years, soybean production in Brazil increased almost 400%, a higher rate of growth than that experienced by any other internationally traded commodity in the world during the 20th century" (Wolford).

References

"Agronegócio E a Devastação Do Cerrado." E Esse Tal Meio Ambiente? Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://essetalmeioambiente.com/agronegocio-e-a-devastacao-do-cerrado/>.

"Biodiversity Hotspots - Cerrado - Conservation Action." Biodiversity Hotspots - Home. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/cerrado/pages/conservation.aspx>.

"Biodiversity Hotspots - Cerrado - Human Impacts." Biodiversity Hotspots - Home. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/cerrado/pages/impacts.aspx>.

"Biomas El Cerrado Y La Caatinga Patrimonio Nacional Del Brasil." Ecopilos: Reciclaje, Medio Ambiente, Contaminación Y Calentamiento Global. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.ecopilos.com/biomas-el-cerrado-la-caatinga-patrimonio-nacional-del-brasil/>.

"CEOP LBA Brasilia Reference Site Brasilia Station." NCAR | Earth Observing Laboratory. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/insitu/sites/lba/Brasilia/Brasilia/>.

"Cerrado - Brazilian Savanna - a Set on Flickr." Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_diewald/sets/72157604554050994/detail/?page=5>.

"Cerrado National Park | Savingwater.co.za." Water Rhapsody Hout Bay, Cape Town, Southern Suburbs. Saving Water SA. Grey Water Systems. Rainwater Harvesting. Rainwater Tanks. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.savingwater.co.za/tag/cerrado-national-park/>.

Eiten, George. "The Cerrado Vegetation of Brazil." The Botanical Review 38.2 (1972): 201-341. Print.

Fearnside, Philip M. "Soybean Cultivation as a Threat to the Environment in Brazil." Environmental Conservation 28.01 (2001). Print.

Jepson, Wendy, Christian Brannstrom, and Anthony Filippi. "Access Regimes and Regional Land Change in the Brazilian Cerrado, 1972-2002." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 100.1 (2009): 87-111. Print.

"Linking Land-Use Change to Economic Drivers and Biophysical Limitations of Agricultural Expansion in the Brazilian Cerrado." Woods Hole Research Center. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.whrc.org/ecosystem/amazon/cerrado_expansion.html>.

Wolford, Wendy. "Environmental Justice and the Construction of Scale in Brazilian Agriculture." Society & Natural Resources 21.7 (2008): 641-55. Print.

Images of Cerrado

"Cerrado - Brazilian Savanna - a Set on Flickr."

"CEOP LBA Brasilia Reference Site Brasilia Station."

"Cerrado National Park | Savingwater.co.za."

Maps of Cerrado

"Biomas El Cerrado Y La Caatinga Patrimonio Nacional Del Brasil."

"Agronegócio E a Devastação Do Cerrado."