The Cerrado is threatened but crucial for Brazil’s biodiversity & water security (commentary)

The Brazilian Cerrado, recognized as one of the world’s most species-diverse and threatened ecodomains on the planet, faces increasing pressure from large-scale agriculture and land conversion. “Ecodomains” are large areas where the predominant native vegetation is of a given general type, such as the Cerrado. These areas, officially termed “biomes” in Brazil since 2004 (a use of this term different from that in the ecological sciences), include both enclaves of native vegetation other than the predominant one and large areas that have been converted to agriculture and other uses.

Although the Cerrado ecodomain sustains many of Brazil’s main river basins and occupies 24% of the national territory, our group’s review article in Nature Conservation shows that more than 55% of its native vegetation has already been lost, mostly over the last five decades.

Often overshadowed by the Amazon in international debates, the Cerrado has lost more than 1 million square kilometers (more than 386,000 square miles) of its original vegetation, an area larger than France and Germany combined. Even when there are small fluctuations in annual rates of clearing, the historical trend continues to be one of increasing conversion driven by agricultural expansion, urban growth, mining and land speculation. The result is an increasingly fragmented and ecologically fragile landscape.

The Cerrado’s inverted forest

One of the most striking characteristics of the Cerrado is its so-called “inverted forest.” Unlike tropical rainforests, where most of the biomass is aboveground, the Cerrado concentrates about 90% of its carbon in deep and extensive root systems. This subterranean engineering makes the Cerrado an important carbon stock and an essential regulator of water flows.

Ignoring this dynamic can lead to serious mistakes. Initiatives that are limited to planting exotic trees in naturally open areas disregard the ecology of this ecodomain and can compromise its natural processes. Protecting and restoring the Cerrado requires strategies that prioritize ecological functionality, the regeneration of native species, and the integrity of underground systems, and not just simple afforestation.

Ecosystem diversity and challenges for conservation

The Cerrado is not a uniform landscape. It is formed by a complex and interdependent mosaic of grasslands, savannas and forests, each with distinct structures, ecological dynamics, and levels of vulnerability. Treating this ecodomain as homogeneous makes both grassland and forest formations invisible and compromises the formulation of truly effective public policies. Savanna ecosystems, which territorially predominate, have been intensively converted into agricultural monocultures, exotic pastures and commercial silviculture, drastically reducing their functional integrity.

Grassland ecosystems, especially the montane campos rupestres (grasslands on rocky soils), occupy restricted areas and concentrate high levels of endemism, suffering strong pressure from mining, urban expansion and biological invasions. Meanwhile, forest ecosystems, such as Cerradão and mata de galeria, face degradation from selective deforestation and an increasing demand for water for irrigation, which reduces the flow of springs and fragments essential ecological corridors. Road construction acts as the primary driver of this transformation, serving as a gateway for exploitation in previously preserved areas.

Although some biodiversity is morphologically adapted to natural fire, the current frequency and intensity of anthropogenic fires causes ecological collapse. This process is amplified by invasive exotic species that accumulate flammable biomass, promoting a silent and cumulative degradation even in fire-sensitive ecosystems, such as forests and campos rupestres. Scientists warn that without urgent conservation measures, these changes may irreversibly alter biodiversity, water security and local livelihoods.

Invisible extinctions and the crisis of knowledge

The Cerrado faces a process of silent extinctions. Despite harboring thousands of unique species, there is a profound gap in how this biodiversity is monitored and understood. Plants and invertebrates are among the most threatened groups and, at the same time, are among the least studied, meaning that many species may disappear before they are even formally described by science. This lack of knowledge creates a dangerous paradox: the most ecologically essential organisms are often the least visible in conservation strategies.

Policies based on incomplete data tend to fail because it is virtually impossible to protect what is unknown. Avoiding a broader collapse requires expanding conservation criteria, incorporating not only individual species but also the ecological interactions that sustain the soils, hydrological cycles, and the functioning of the ecodomain itself.

Water at risk

Loss of the Cerrado also represents a silent water crisis that jeopardizes national security. This ecodomain feeds the country’s main hydrographic basins and large aquifers, but this balance has been destabilized by the expansion of irrigated agriculture, contamination by agrochemicals, and the construction of dams. The excessive withdrawal of water, both surface water and groundwater, is already resulting in reduced river flow and the degradation of the veredas (wetlands), which are fundamental for water regulation.

There is a clear paradox here in that the sectors that most pressure water resources — such as agribusiness and energy generation — are also those that depend most on them. This cycle deepens water and economic insecurity. So, protecting riparian areas and aquifers in the Cerrado is not just an environmental issue, but a basic condition for the country’s productive stability and climate resilience.

Disconnect between law and reality

The Cerrado faces a worrying disconnect between environmental legislation and ecological reality. Research shows that current protection is surprisingly limited: although 706 conservation units (protected areas for biodiversity) have been created, they cover only 8% of the ecodomain, with less than 3% under full protection.

Even important instruments, such as Private Natural Heritage Reserves (RPPNs) and ecological transition zones, do not compensate for the structural inadequacy of the current model. The Forest Code, by requiring only 20% for Legal Reserve (or 35% in area of the ecodomain located within the Legal Amazon, a territory defined by the Brazilian government) and establishing narrow strips of Permanent Preservation Areas, does not keep pace with the scale of the ecological processes that sustain the Cerrado. Essential formations, such as veredas and campos rupestres, end up reduced to isolated and vulnerable fragments.

This legal and institutional fragility is also reflected in historical land-use dynamics across the ecodomain. For much of the Cerrado’s history, Indigenous peoples were progressively expelled from their territories, first by loggers and cattle ranching, later by large-scale grain production. This process accelerated with the move of Brazil’s capital to Brasília, which is inside the Cerrado, and deepened under the military dictatorship of the 1960s and ’70s.

Today, the recently approved Temporal Framework Law (Marco Temporal), which restricts the right to legal recognition of an Indigenous territory to those areas that were effectively occupied by Indigenous peoples at the time of the 1988 Constitution, combined with complex legal and bureaucratic barriers, has made the recognition of new Indigenous lands in the Cerrado almost impossible. This is a severe blow to biodiversity, because Indigenous territories are among the most effective and reliable areas for ecosystem protection.

Avoiding ecological collapse and guaranteeing Brazil’s water security requires revising legal parameters in light of scientific knowledge. This includes increasing conservation percentages on private properties, strengthening protected zones, and implementing rigorous traceability mechanisms that decouple agricultural production from the ongoing loss of habitats.

Without structural reform, the gap between environmental law and ecological reality in the Cerrado will continue to widen.

Cássio Cardoso Pereira and Walisson Kenedy-Siqueira are researchers affiliated with the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues is affiliated with the Postgraduate Program in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation at the Federal University of Mato Grosso, in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso state, Brazil. Rodolfo Salm is affiliated with the Faculty of Biology at the Federal University of Pará, in Altamira, Pará state, Brazil. Philip Martin Fearnside is affiliated with the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil.

Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: A discussion with two experts protecting and expanding the Cerrado’s unique plant diversity and wildlife, listen here:

See related coverage:

Study warns that loosened legislation is driving deforestation in Bahia’s Cerrado

Citations:

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