While the burning of the Amazon has grabbed our focus and has been one of the biggest crises in current news, there lies another problem in Brazil that might be as devastating as losing the Amazon. In Cerrado Brazil, which is home to 5% of the species of the world, many species of birds, reptiles, fish, insects, and mammals are being destroyed at a faster rate than the Amazon rain forest. Cerrado is a habitat made up of many different biomes like the forest, savannah, and grassland. The grassland is particularly unique because it functions almost as an upside-down forest where a large amount of biomass is below the surface.
From a scientific standpoint of what’s happening to Cerrado, deforestation and agriculture contribute to global warming. They do this by weakening the capacity of the land to take in carbon dioxide. The workers who are weakening the land contribute to global warming with their machinery by increasing fossil fuels and carbon emissions.
Cerrado, which is half the size of the Amazon, is 50% deforested, according on Edegar de Oliveira Rosa. He also claims, “We are losing around 700,000 hectares per year.” This deforested land is then used to raise cattle and grow soybeans. These agricultural products are in turn exported to other countries for the financial benefit of the Brazilian economy.
With the deforestation of the Cerrado and the rise of meat and soybean production, Brazil has gained favor with the Chinese who have had an increasing appetite for meat and soy-based products. Furthermore, it was implied that the trade war between the USA and China has steered China in the direction of Brazil for these products and therefore raised the incentive to continue the destruction of the Cerrado. Brazil has protected only 8% of the Cerrado leaving the rest of it open for further destruction for monetary gain.
Cerrado is a huge mass of land that is bio diverse with animals, biomes, and plants. When deforestation hits the land, it greatly affects these animals and plants because their habitats are being destroyed. It also affects us with its contribution to global warming. Cutting down the trees decreases the amount of carbon the land can intake. This leads to more greenhouse gases lingering and causing the world to heat up which in turn causes more problems like the loss of nutrition and water.
I believe there are two ways that this issue should be addressed. The first thing the Brazilians should do is protect their land in the Cerrado. If Brazil can increase the protection of the land in the Cerrado, they will help greatly in preserving the biodiversity and other important functions of the land. 11,000 plant species are found in the Cerrado and half of that is found nowhere else on earth. That is worth protecting. While comparing the Amazon and the Cerrado, Gardner points out that “In absolute terms, about the same area has been cleared, but in relative terms, the Cerrado is much more threatened, with more than three times more loss than the Amazon.” Another way the world can help decrease the deforestation is by removing the incentive to buy meat and other agricultural products that are produced on that land. Right now, to meet the high demand for meat, Brazil has devastated the Cerrado. If tariffs on American meat were decreased, then China may turn its attention away from Brazil for those same products and will allow for land in the Cerrado to be preserved.