The Brazilian biome suffering more than the Amazon

Early in June, the Environment and Sustainability Agency of the Center-West state of Goiás launched a major clampdown operation in the municipality of Cavalcante — a tourism hotspot in the Chapada dos Veadeiros national park. In a single day, agents identified 24 spots of deforestation and illegal mining, among them a previously untouched area of savannah transformed into cattle pasture by Cavalcante Mayor Josemar Saraiva Freire — who was fined BRL 169,000 (USD 31,500) and saw two of the City Hall’s own diggers seized, which he had used to carry out the crime. 

During the same operation, inspectors witnessed the destruction of 500 hectares of native savannah land within the Kalunga quilombo, which are traditional communities founded by runaway slaves throughout Brazil’s long-running slave trade.

While the eyes of the world are trained on the Amazon rainforest — with good reason — it is Brazil’s savannah-like Cerrado region which is suffering the most from deforestation. While around 70 percent of the Amazon is public land, and rural producers must keep 80 percent of their properties intact, the Cerrado is mostly in the hands of private landowners. The area is Brazil’s agricultural engine and houses riverbeds that serve as the sources of three of South America’s biggest river basins. But...