Northeast Brazil's imperiled Cerrado
Celso H. L. Silva, Swanni T. Alvarado, Danielle Celentano, Guillaume Xavier Rousseau, Luis M. Hernández, Tiago Massi Ferraz, Fabrício Brito Silva, Maycon Henrique Franzoi de Melo, Taíssa Caroline Silva Rodrigues, Josué Carvalho Viegas, Ulisses Denache Vieira Souza, André Luís Silva dos Santos, Denílson da Silva Bezerra
Abstract
Brazil's Cerrado region, a tropical savanna ecosystem globally recognized for its rich and endemic biodiversity (1) and its importance in water regulation (2), faces escalating threats to its environmental services due to deforestation (3). The state of Maranhão, with an area of 33 million hectares, contains both Cerrado (65%) and Amazon (35%) biomes (4). In the state's Amazonian region, predatory deforestation has led to poverty and violence against traditional and Indigenous peoples (4). Maranhão, which is currently deliberating zoning policies, must ensure that the mistakes made in the Amazon are not repeated in the Cerrado.