Deforestation in the Brazilian cerrado grew by around 25%, compared to the last measurement, and reached 10,688.73 km². It is the highest value since 2015, when 11,129.06 km² of felling were recorded, and the second largest jump ever recorded. It is the third consecutive year of devastation in the biome.
The data come from Prodes Cerrado, a program by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) that measures deforestation in the biome. The values are registered from August of one year until July of the following year, that is, the deforestation released this Wednesday (14) took place from August 2021 until July of this year.
In the previous period, the felling of cerrado had been around 8.5 thousand km². In 2019, the first year of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government —in which forest destruction exploded in the Amazon—, the cerrado recorded 6,300 km² of deforestation.
Devastation in the Brazilian cerrado, the most biodiverse savannah in the world and with an important role in Brazilian hydrographic basins, is not so far numerically from the deforestation registered in the Amazon in the same period — 11,568 km². The problem, however, is proportional. The cerrado is approximately half the size of the Brazilian Amazon. The number thus points to a higher rate of destruction in the Brazilian savannah.
The Brazilian cerrado has less protection when compared to the Amazon. The Forest Code in force indicates that, in general terms, 80% of the area of private properties located in the Amazon biome must be preserved standing (what is called a legal reserve). For the cerrado, this number is 20% or 35% (as in the case of cerrado areas located in the legal Amazon).
At the same time that it receives less protection, the national cerrado sees the advance of agribusiness, especially soy plantations. A recent survey by MapBiomas showed that soy already occupies around 10% of the cerrado, which is equivalent to 20 million hectares. One of the most targeted regions when talking about such expansion is Matopiba, which comprises areas of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia.
The expansion of soy over areas of the Amazon rainforest was largely curbed thanks to the soy moratorium, an agreement that prohibits the trade, purchase and financing of grains produced in areas illegally deforested in the Amazon after July 2008.
There is resistance in the sector, however, to an expansion of the moratorium to the cerrado.
With the significant increase in deforestation in the Amazon during the Bolsonaro government, international pressure on the subject has also grown. Recently, a new regulation advanced in the European Union to prevent the importation of products linked to deforestation. Brazil and the Amazon are computed in this legislation, however, the cerrado was left out.
According to the rule, the European common market will reject commodities, such as meat, soy, wood, rubber, cocoa, coffee and palm oil (dendê), from deforested areas, even with legal permission, after December 31, 2020.
A study published in 2020 in the journal Science showed that illegal deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado may be contaminating approximately 20% of soy and at least 17% of meat exported to the European Union.
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