O thick it is an important biome and also a Brazilian morphoclimatic domain, being the second largest in original area of Brazil, second only to the Amazon. It is also one of the richest landscapes in the country and the world in terms of plant and animal species. However, all this wealth and importance did not prevent this natural domain from being gradually devastated by human activities.
The Cerrado degradation process intensified from the 1970s onwards, when the advance of production technologies allowed the expansion of the agricultural frontier to the interior of Brazil, so that a good part of the natural areas were replaced by crops, the majority of soybeans turned to the export.
Currently, only 20% of the original Cerrado vegetation remains, which still has a deforestation rate of two times higher than that suffered by the Amazon, totaling an average of three million hectares per year, according to data from NGO Conservation International. If exploration continues at this rate, by 2030 the Cerrado biome will be totally extinct, taking with it all its species, some of which are threatened with extinction.
In addition to the expansion of agricultural activities, another reason for the increase in deforestation in the Cerrado is the intensive use of its natural resources, notably wood from trees. As the trees have trunks with thick and resistant bark, they are generally used as raw material for the production of charcoal, as this type of wood takes longer to burn and is more resistant.
To make this scenario worse, there is the problem of fires. Naturally, they have always existed in the Cerrado and are part of the renewal and sprouting cycles of new seeds. But when intensified by human action, they damage the soil and prevent the renewal of the forest, consuming the trees and leaving the environment unsuitable for plant and animal species.
Fires worsen the Cerrado picture *
Currently, the Cerrado is classified as a hot spot, that is, a natural place with international conservation priority due to threats to its biodiversity. The biome also has a large number of endemic species – those that only exist locally – which makes its preservation even more urgent and necessary.
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* Image credits: Brazil Agency / Wikimedia Commons
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
