The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the Brazilian highlands – the Planalto. The main habitat types of the Cerrado consist of forest savanna, wooded savanna, park savanna and grass-woody savanna. The Cerrado also includes savanna wetlands and .
The second largest of Brazil's major habitat types, after the Amazonian rainforest, the Cerrado accounts for a full 21 percent of the country's land area (extending marginally into Paraguay and Bolivia). About 75% of the Cerrado’s 2 million km2 is privately owned.
Vast amounts of research have shown that the Cerrado is one of the richest of all tropical savanna regions and has high levels of endemism. Characterizing it by its enormous ranges of plant and animal biodiversity, World Wide Fund for Nature named the Cerrado the biologically richest savanna in the world, with about 10,000 plant species and 10 endemic bird species. There are nearly 200 species of mammal in the Cerrado, though only 14 are endemic. The large fraction of private ownership makes protection difficult, however.
The savanna portion of the Cerrado is heterogeneous in terms of canopy cover. Goodland (1971) divided the Cerrado into four categories ranging from least to most canopy cover: campo sujo (herbaceous layer with occasional small trees about 3 m tall), campo cerrado (slightly higher density of trees about 4 m tall on average), cerrado sensu stricto (orchard-like vegetation with trees about 6 m high) and cerradao (canopy cover near 50% with general height 9 m).
Probably around 800 species of trees are found in the Cerrado. Among the most diverse families of trees in the Cerrado are the Leguminosae (153 spp.), Malpighiaceae (46), Myrtaceae (43), Melastomataceae (32), and Rubiaceae (30). Much of the Cerrado is dominated by the Vochysiaceae (23 species in the Cerrado) due to the abundance of three species in the genus Qualea. The herbaceous layer usually reaches about 60 cm in height and is composed mainly of the Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Leguminosae, Compositae, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae. Much of the vegetation in the gallery forests is similar to nearby rainforest; however, there are some endemic species found only in the Cerrado gallery forests.
Soil fertility, fire regime and hydrology are thought to be most influential in determining Cerrado vegetation. Cerrado soils are always well-drained and most are with low pH and low calcium and magnesium. The amount of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus has been found to be positively correlated with tree trunk basal area in Cerrado habitats. Much as in other grasslands and savannas, fire is important in maintaining and shaping the Cerrado's landscape; many plants in the Cerrado are fire-adapted, exhibiting characters like thick corky bark to withstand the heat.
Cerrado vegetation is believed to be ancient, stretching back perhaps as far in a prototypic form as the Cretaceous, before Africa and South America separated. A dynamic expansion and contraction between cerrado and Amazonian rainforest has probably occurred historically, with expansion of the Cerrado during glacial periods like the Pleistocene. These processes and the resulting fragmentation in multiple refugia have probably contributed to the high species richness both of the Cerrado and of the Amazonian rainforest.
Most birds found in the Cerrado breed there although there are some Austral migrants (breed in temperate South America and winter in the Amazon basin) and Nearctic migrants (breed in temperate North America and winter in the Neotropics) that pass through. Most breeding birds in the Cerrado are found in more closed canopy areas like gallery forests although 27% of the birds breed only in open habitats and 21% breed in either open or closed habitats. Many of the birds in the Cerrado, especially those found in closed forest, are related to species from the Atlantic rainforest and also the Amazon rainforest. The crowned solitary eagle, hyacinth macaw, toco toucan, buff-necked ibis, dwarf tinamou, and Brazilian merganser are examples of birds found in the Cerrado.
Gallery forests serve as primary habitat for most of the mammals in the Cerrado, having more water, being protected from fires that sweep the landscape and having a more highly structured habitat. Eleven mammal species are endemic to the Cerrado. Notable species include large herbivores like the Brazilian tapir and Pampas deer and large predators like the maned wolf, cougar, jaguar, giant otter, ocelot and jaguarundi. Although the diversity is much lower than in the adjacent Amazon and Atlantic Forest, several species of monkeys are present, including black-striped capuchin, black howler monkey and black-tufted marmoset.
The insects of the Cerrado are relatively understudied. A yearlong survey of the Cerrado at one reserve in Brazil found that the orders Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera and Isoptera accounted for 89.5% of all captures. The Cerrado also supports a high density (up to 4000 per hectare) of the nests of leaf cutter ants ( saúvas), which are also very diverse. Along with termites, leaf cutter ants are the primary herbivores of the Cerrado and play an important role in consuming and decomposing organic matter, as well as constituting an important food source to many other animal species. The highest diversity of galling insects (insects that build ) in the world is also found in the Cerrado, with the most species (46) found at the base of the Serra do Cipó in southeast Brazil.
Taking advantage of the sprouting of the herbaceous stratum that follows a burning in the Cerrado, the aboriginal inhabitants of these regions learned to use fire as a tool, to increase the fodder to offer to their domesticated animals.
Xavante, , Karajás, Avá-Canoeiros, Krahôs, Xerente, Xacriabás were some of the first indigenous peoples occupying different regions in the Cerrado. Many groups among the indigenous were nomads and explored the Cerrado by hunting and collecting. Others practiced coivara agriculture, an itinerant type of slash-and-burn agriculture. The mixing of indigenous, quilombola maroon communities, extractivists, geraizeiros (living in the drier regions), riverbank dwellers and vazanteiros (living on floodplains) shaped a diverse local population that relies heavily on the resources of their environment.
Until the mid-1960s, agriculture activities in the Cerrado were very limited, since natural cerrado soils are not fertile enough for crop production, directed mainly at the extensive production of beef cattle for subsistence of the local market. After this period, however, the urban and industrial development of the Southeast Region has forced agriculture to the Central-West Region. The transfer of the country's capital to Brasília has been another focus of attraction of population to the central region: From 1975 until the beginning of the 1980s, many governmental subsidy programs were launched to promote agriculture, with the intent of stimulating the development of the Cerrado region. As a result, there has been a significant increase in agricultural and cattle production.
On the other hand, the urban pressure and the rapid establishment of agricultural activities in the region have been rapidly reducing the biodiversity of the ecosystems, and the population in the Cerrado region more than doubled from 1970 to 2010, going from 35.8 to 76 million.
Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize, and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of eucalyptus and Pinus, but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export.
During the last 25 years this biome has been increasingly threatened by industrial monoculture farming, particularly soybeans, the unregulated expansion of industrial agriculture, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation are drawing criticisms and have been identified as potential threats to several Brazilian rivers.
This industrial farming of the Cerrado, with the clearing of land for eucalyptus and soy plantations, has grown so much because of various forms of subsidy, including very generous tax incentives and low interest loans. This has resulted in the establishment of a highly mechanized, capital intensive system of agriculture. There is also a strong agribusiness lobby in Brazil and in particular, the production of soybeans in the Cerrado is influenced by large corporations such as ADM, Cargill and Bunge, these latter two directly associated with the mass deforestation of this biome.
Despite its ecological importance, Brazilian agricultural policies and land-use planning have historically regarded the Cerrado as having low conservation value. As a result, only 1.5% of the biome is protected under federal reserves. By 1994, roughly 695,000 km², representing 35% of its total area, had already been converted to anthropogenic landscapes. In total, 37.3% of the Cerrado has been completely converted for human use, while an additional 41.4% is used for extensive pasture and charcoal production.
The biome’s gallery forests are among the most degraded ecosystems. As of recent estimates, only about 432,814 km² (or 21.3% of the original vegetation) remains intact.Conservation International. [1] Access date: 31/08/2011 Vegetation loss continues at an alarming rate, with projections suggesting that a further 31–34% of the remaining biome could be cleared by 2050 if current trends persist.Strassburg, B.B.N., Brooks, T., et al. 2017. Moment of truth for the Cerrado hotspot. Nature Ecology & Evolution.1: 1-3. Recent studies have shown that approximately 19% of the Cerrado, around 17 million hectares, exhibits significant woody plant encroachment. This densification, marked by a 40% increase in wood cover, has led to a reduction in plant diversity by about 30%.
One of the key challenges in establishing effective nature reserves in the Cerrado lies in its floristic heterogeneity and complex mosaic of vegetation types, which complicates the selection of representative conservation areas. To address this, collaborative efforts have been underway involving the University of Brasília, Embrapa's Cerrado Research Center (CPAC), and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, supported by Brazilian, European, and British funding. These partnerships have expanded into a major Anglo-Brazilian initiative titled "Conservation and Management of the Biodiversity of the Cerrado Biome", funded by the UK Overseas Development Administration. The project's primary objective is to survey floristic patterns, identify biodiversity hotspots, and recommend priority areas for conservation.
The first protected area in the Brazilian Cerrado was the Paraobepa National Forest which was established in 1950. Until the early 1990’s, the progression of the network was slow, with only a handful of protected areas established each year. During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s there was a boom of new protected areas, which coincides with the passing of Law No. 9.985, of July 18, 2000. This law established the National System of Nature Conservation Units (SNUC) and defines the concepts for the creation and management of conservation units in Brazil, marking the beginning of their legal regulation. Between 1997 and 2006, a total of 179 conservation units were established in the Cerrado, accounting for almost one third of the entire current network. Since this boom, the rate at which new conservation units are created each year has slowed down but varies considerably from year to year.
There are two groups of conservation units in Brazil, namely Integral Protection (IP) and Sustainable Protection (SP). Integral protection units exist to protect nature, and use of their resources is limited to recreation and tourism." UCs Categories". www.gov.br. Retrieved 2024-11-17. Sustainable protection units aim to reconcile the conservation of nature with the sustainable use of its natural resources. Out of the 560 conservation units in the Cerrado, there are 176 integral protection units and 384 sustainable protection units. Within each type of conservation unit, there exist several categories, which are each associated with a category of the IUCN protected area classification system.
All categories of conservation units can exist at the federal, state, or municipal level. Federal conservation units are managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio)." Protected Areas". www.gov.br. Retrieved 2024-11-17. In the Cerrado biome, there are currently 241 federally managed conservation units, which make up 6.41 Mha of land. State conservation units are managed by state environmental agencies. There are currently 210 conservation units managed at the state level in the Cerrado, which make up 10.15 Mha of land. Municipal conservation units are managed by the municipal environmental secretariats. There are currently 109 conservation units managed at the municipal level in the Cerrado, spanning roughly 1.41 Mha of land.
Both Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas are National Parks that are federally managed. As National Parks, they are registered as integral protection units and benefit from strict regulations preventing the direct use of their resources. Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park was established in 1961 and comprises 240 kha of land. Its area overlaps with the Environmental Protection Area of Pouso Alto, which is a sustainable protection conservation unit that was established in 2001. Emas National Park was established in 1961, and it makes up 132 kha of land. Its management focuses on preventing the negative effects of the agricultural area that almost completely surrounds it.
When they are created, each conservation unit in Brazil should be assigned a management plan which outlines the conservation practices that will take place within the unit as well as a management council to guide its conservation." UC Management". www.gov.br. Retrieved 2024-11-17. The management plan establishes a number of guidelines and rules necessary for the management of the conservation unit. This includes the zoning of the area, in which the conservation unit is divided into different sections categorized by their required degrees of protection. The management council is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the management plan and acts as a link between local populations and stakeholders with economic or environmental priorities. As of 2024, almost 40% of all conservation units registered in the Cerrado do not have a management plan and about 60% do not have a management council.
Some studies have evaluated the effectiveness of protected areas in the Cerrado depending on their strictness. Sustainable protection units, which are less strict as biodiversity conservation is not their primary goal, have been found to be ineffective against deforestation.Françoso, R.D., Brandão, R., et al. 2015. Habitat loss and the effectiveness of protected areas in the Cerrado Biodiversity Hotspot. Natureza & Conservação,13: 35-40. In 2015, 85% of all protected areas in the Cerrado, excluding private natural heritage reserves, were environmental protected areas, which are sustainable protection units. Integral protection units in the Cerrado are the most efficient in biodiversity protection in terms of reducing deforestation and maintaining species richness.Ferreira, G.B., Collen, B., et al. 2020. Strict protected areas are essential for the conservation of larger and threatened mammals in a priority region of the Brazilian Cerrado. Biological Conservation, 251: 108762.
Conservation units should be representative of the biome they protect. In 2015, only two thirds of protected areas corresponded to remaining native vegetation in the Cerrado, with the other one third representing deforested areas within different conservation units. Despite this, protected areas have been found to be effective in representing both ecosystem services and biodiversity of the Cerrado.Resende, F.M., Cimon-Morin, J., et al. 2021. The importance of protected areas and Indigenous lands in securing ecosystem services and biodiversity in the Cerrado. Ecosystem Services, 49: 101282.
Compliance with the Forest Code by landowners is an issue in the Cerrado as some consider the legislation to be a roadblock for agricultural development.Stefanes, M., Roque, F.O., et al. 2018. Property size drives differences in forest code compliance in the Brazilian Cerrado. Land Use Policy, 75: 43-49. There are measures in place to increase compliance, such as the Rural Environmental Registry System (CAR), which is a documentation system of environmental information of millions of rural properties that facilitates their monitoring and management. Monetary incentives are also offered by the Brazilian government in the form of the Low-Carbon Agriculture (ABC) program to promote sustainable agriculture and forest restoration.
Fauna
History and human population
in which he describes the main features of the cerrado vegetation in the state of Minas Gerais.
Rivers
Commercial activity
Agriculture
Charcoal production
Conservation
Ecological trends and challenges
Protected areas
Types of Protected Areas
+ Integral Protection Units in the Cerrado (as of 2024)
! Type !! IUCN Category
/ref> !! Purpose and Characteristics !! No. of Units !! Area !! Examples
Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station Culuene Biological Reserve Araguaia National Park Tocantins Fossil Trees Natural Monument Corixão de Mata Azul Wildlife Refuge
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Effectiveness of Protected Areas
Privately Owned Land
Indigenous Land
Further reading
External links
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