Diamantina Plateau, Cerrado Ecosystem, Brazil
It looks like the Brazilian government is starting to pay serious attention to the Cerrado. Their new Cerrado Plan will see US$200 million of federal money invested over the next two years to protect the mixed woodland-savannah, which covers 21% of Brazil’s land mass, an area about the size of Greenland or Saudi Arabia.
Though relatively unknown, compared to the Amazon, the Cerrado is vital for many reasons. Lots of important tributaries of the Amazon river originate there. It also feeds the world’s largest wetland, the Pantanal.
The Cerrado has traditionally been viewed as the ‘ugly duckling’ of Brazil’s regions – and increasingly a target for exploitation, deforestation and unsustainable expansion of agriculture. But the Cerrado is actually one of the most richly biodiverse places in the world, and supplies essential resources for Brazil’s development. Nearly 90% of Brazilians consume energy generated in the region.
How Brazil can protect the Cerrado
The government’s new plan is focused on restoring the savannah’s most vulnerable places. Targets include:
* creating 25,000km2 of national parks and other protected areas
* officially marking out 5.8 million hectares of indigenous territories
* a land-use plan that balances environmental and economic needs.
Central to this is a legal framework that protects the environmental services provided by this resource-rich area. At the moment just over 8% of the Cerrado is officially under the government’s watch – the new commitment will protect another 15% by the end of 2010.
The government says it will increase patrolling and train 4,500 new forest rangers and firefighters. Real-time satellite monitoring will also be used, similar to the existing PRODES system that’s proved a huge success in reducing deforestation rates in the Amazon.
It looks like the Brazilian government is starting to pay serious attention to the Cerrado. Their new Cerrado Plan will see US$200 million of federal money invested over the next two years to protect the mixed woodland-savannah, which covers 21% of Brazil’s land mass, an area about the size of Greenland or Saudi Arabia.
Though relatively unknown, compared to the Amazon, the Cerrado is vital for many reasons. Lots of important tributaries of the Amazon river originate there. It also feeds the world’s largest wetland, the Pantanal.
The Cerrado has traditionally been viewed as the ‘ugly duckling’ of Brazil’s regions – and increasingly a target for exploitation, deforestation and unsustainable expansion of agriculture. But the Cerrado is actually one of the most richly biodiverse places in the world, and supplies essential resources for Brazil’s development. Nearly 90% of Brazilians consume energy generated in the region.
How Brazil can protect the Cerrado
The government’s new plan is focused on restoring the savannah’s most vulnerable places. Targets include:
* creating 25,000km2 of national parks and other protected areas
* officially marking out 5.8 million hectares of indigenous territories
* a land-use plan that balances environmental and economic needs.
Central to this is a legal framework that protects the environmental services provided by this resource-rich area. At the moment just over 8% of the Cerrado is officially under the government’s watch – the new commitment will protect another 15% by the end of 2010.
The government says it will increase patrolling and train 4,500 new forest rangers and firefighters. Real-time satellite monitoring will also be used, similar to the existing PRODES system that’s proved a huge success in reducing deforestation rates in the Amazon.
