Cerrado deforestation: causes and effects –

O deforestation of Wwrong it is an environmental problem that has devastated at least half of the native coverage area of ​​what is the second largest biome in Brazil and is mainly due to the opening of new areas for the development of economic activities such as agriculture and livestock. A survey by MapBiomas showed that most of Brazil’s agricultural area is in the Cerrado, and the main crop developed is soy.

Habitat for tens of thousands of animal and plant species and shelter for important sources of rivers and aquifers, the Cerrado it is currently one of the most devastated biomes in the country. Continuing deforestation has serious consequences for the environment, such as the loss of biodiversity, increased pollution and the disappearance of springs.

Read too: Fires in the Amazon — the environmental problem intensified due to regional economic practices

Topics of this article

Summary on Cerrado deforestation

• The main cause of deforestation in the Cerrado is the opening of new areas for the development of agricultural activities, which includes the planting of agricultural commodities such as soy.

• The Cerrado has already lost half of its native vegetation cover.

• Between 1985 and 2020 alone, 26.5 million hectares were deforested.

• The greatest loss occurred in the states of Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso.

• Between 2021 and 2022, deforestation in the Cerrado jumped from 680,000 to 815,000 hectares, maintaining a growth trend identified for the recent period.

• Environmental imbalance, loss of biodiversity and changes in the dynamics of rivers and aquifers in the Cerrado are some of the consequences of deforestation in this biome.

Don’t stop now… There’s more after the publicity 😉

Causes of Cerrado deforestation

Deforestation of the Cerrado is an environmental problem that has promoted the destruction of the second largest Brazilian biome at an accelerated pace. Before occupying an area corresponding to 22% of the entire surface of the territory of Brazil, it is known that the Cerrado has already lost at least half of its entire vegetation cover, and the causes that led to this devastation are linked to the productive restructuring of the country that took place in the second half of the 20th century.

The technical innovations promoted by the Green Revolution and government incentives for the occupation of areas in the interior of Brazil during the 1970s caused many rural producers, mainly from the South and Southeast regions, to move towards the states of the Center region. -West, where new areas for planting and raising animals were opened. The process known as expansion of Brazil’s agricultural frontierwhich advanced towards the Cerrado.

Monocultures of soy, corn and cotton based on the productive model of agribusiness and the pastures quickly replaced the natural landscape of the Wwrong in areas where, until then, subsistence agriculture predominated. New agricultural areas were also opened in the states of the North and Northeast regions of the country, with emphasis on Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, which form the agricultural region of Matopiba.

Therefore, the main cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Cerrado is the opening of new areas for agricultural activity. According to MapBiomas, 42% of the agricultural area in Brazil is located in the Cerrado, which represents 23.4 million hectares. This absolute value is even greater than the area occupied by agricultural activity in the Amazon (6 million hectares).

Another economic activity that contributes negatively to the problem is the extractivism (mineral and vegetable). In addition anthropic action in general and urbanization can be listed as causing the deforestation of this biome.

Cerrado deforestation in the last 30 years

The Cerrado lost an area of ​​26.5 million hectares between 1985 and 2020, according to data collected by MapBiomas. Areas destined for agricultural cultivation increased more than four times in the Cerrado (464%) in a 35-year interval.

It is necessary to consider, however, that in 1985 the Cerrado had already lost a significant portion of its native coverage, which was approximately 33%. Over the next three decades, nearly 20% more were lost, totaling one Cumulative deforestation of more than half of the total area of ​​the biome.

The main region where the removal of native vegetation from the Cerrado for the allocation of areas to agriculture and livestock was in Matopiba, where the agricultural frontier expanded during the last decades of the 20th century. In addition, the MapBiomas survey also shows that the areas planted with soy in the Cerrado represented 0.7% in 1985 and jumped to approximately 10% thirty years later.1|

Considering the accumulated data from Inpe’s Prodes project, the biggest loss Wbrazilian wrong from 2001 took place in the state of Tocantins, where 48,293.33 km² of area were deforested. Next are Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais, which, together with Tocantins, account for 76.15% of the entire deforested area of ​​the biome.

Deforestation of the Cerrado today

The deforested area in Cwrong increased by 20% in the period between 2021 and 2022, according to information collected by the Cerrado Deforestation Alert System (SAD Cerrado). the uncovered surface jumped from 680,000 hectares in 2021 to 815,532 hectares the following year. The comparison for the month of December alone indicated that the deforested area for this time interval practically doubled from 2021 to 2022.

The state hardest hit by the recent increase in deforestation in Wwrong it was Maranhãowith records of deforestation in the agricultural frontier expansion region in the south of the state, followed by municipalities in western Bahia.

This growth was also detected by Prodes. Information from INPE shows that after a period of decline and relative stagnation, the removal of vegetation cover from the Cerrado has risen again since 2019.

The main causes for the resumption of deforestation in the Cerrado are the same as previously mentioned, that is, the creation of new areas for commercial agriculture and livestock. Added to this is the easing of environmental laws and a lower rate of inspection of biomes, which resulted in an increase in the removal of native cover in other areas of the country as well.

See too: Deforestation in the Caatinga — an environmental problem associated with the desertification process in the Northeast

Graph of Cerrado deforestation

The graph in the image below shows how the annual evolution of deforestation in the Cerrado occurred over the last two decades. As we analyzed, it is possible to identify a new growing movement in the deforested area in recent years. The data used to compose the graph are from Prodes – Inpe, updated on December 14, 2022.

Consequences of Cerrado deforestation

Some of the consequences of deforestation in the Cerrado are:

• Environmental imbalance, which affects the fauna, flora and populations that live in the coverage area of ​​this biome.

• Death of animals and plants, which can drive many species to extinction and cause the loss of biodiversity in the Cerrado, which is the third largest in Brazil.

• Greater susceptibility of soils to erosion, weakening its structure, and to leaching.

• Pollution of soils and water bodies (rivers and aquifers), which is also due to the increase in agricultural activity.

• Atmospheric pollution due to lower carbon retention and fires caused by human action.

• Extinction of river sources (or headwaters) and less recharge of aquifers.

Grades

|1| ESSAY. Brazilian Cerrado loses more than 20% of the native vegetation it had in the 1980s. Jornal da Globo, 13 set. 2022. Available here.

image credit

lourencolf / Shutterstock

By Paloma Guitarrara
Geography Teacher