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Savannah for sale: is there hope for neotropical biodiversity on private, Brazilian properties?

2020; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/acv.12617

1469-1795

Clarissa Rosa,

Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Brazil is a mega-diverse country. While many national and international conservation research programs and government policies are focused on tropical forests in Brazil (Plotkin, 2020), few efforts are made to conserve the country's arid and semi-arid environments. For example, the cerrado (Brazilian savannah) is recognized for being home to threatened mammals as much as the Amazon rainforest (Costa et al., 2005). Known as the 'new agricultural frontier', the cerrado originally covered one-fourth of Brazil (around 2 million km2) (MMA, 2015), but currently comprises less than half of its original area, with only 8% of this secured in public protected areas (PAs; see http://sistemas.mma.gov.br/portalcnuc/rel/index.php). Agriculture and transport infrastructure have major impacts on both cerrado and its threatened mammals (De Marco et al., 2018). With this rapid conversion of cerrado into agriculture and with a system of small and scattered PAs, where are the cerrado's mammal populations? Between 2014 and 2019, I worked on rapid survey protocols for environmental licensing of 13 private agribusiness and mining properties in north and northeastern Minas Gerais, Brazil. Although my sampling effort was relatively low (ranging from 12 to 40 h/woman on each property), I still registered 56 terrestrial mammal species (Table 1), which represent 11% and 38% of terrestrial mammal species present in Brazil and in the cerrado biome, respectively (Paglia et al., 2012). I recorded seven species classified as vulnerable and five near threatened globally as per the IUCN Red List (Table 1), including new records of an unknown Blastocerus dichotomus population (Rosa, 2018), an endangered species that has had its habitat dramatically reduced in recent decades (Duarte et al., 2016). The surveys were concentrated in legal reserves (LRs) and private protection areas (PPAs) around water bodies which, in Brazil, are areas located in private properties with restricted use (Federal Law 12 651 of May 25, 2012). In the cerrado biome, all private properties in rural areas must maintain 20% of preserved native vegetation in LRs, which may or may not overlap with PPAs (Federal Law 12 651 of May 25, 2012). Despite the fact that RLs and PPAs comprise a larger area in the cerrado than do the PAs, the majority of mammal research (>67%) is focused on PAs (Lima et al., 2017; Santos et al., 2019). This happens for several political and historical reasons that allow easier researcher access to PAs as compared with private properties. Ultimately, this leads to a significant gap in scientific research on the biodiversity of the cerrado. Although I did not carry out any systematic environmental measurements at the sampling sites, I observed poor conservation practices in both LRs and PPAs, and their immediate surroundings (e.g., garbage, pesticide residues, selective logging, and poaching). On the other hand, I also observed good practices such as fencing off LRs and PPAs to prevent the ingress of domestic animals, environmental education for employees and local communities, and ongoing inspection to avoid the entrance of unauthorized people. In many cases, these practices were more efficient than those delivered by public authorities in PAs; however, good practices are often personal initiatives or aimed to avoid other actions (e.g., machinery inspection against thieves, which also discourages poacher entry). Although some usage restrictions are noted in Brazilian law (Federal Law 12 651 of May 25, 2012), no specific regulation for LRs and PPAs or land use policies are set at the landscape level. Adding to efforts already achieved with the creation of LRs and PPAs, there is an enormous potential for fauna conservation in privately owned properties of the cerrado, if adequate land use planning, social policies, and research incentives are put in place (Federal Law 12 651 of May 25, 2012), and scientists recognize the value of data obtained through the technical research for environmental licensing (e.g., Lima et al., 2017; Santos et al., 2019). To this end, new steps must be taken that encourage the union between technical and scientific research, as well as encouraging rural land owners to maintain and even increase their areas of LRs and PPAs. A vegetation restoration program is also needed in the cerrado that incorporates land use planning to increase the connectivity between private and public areas, as well as a payment program for environmental services. Biodiversity is a public good, and Brazil is an important source of natural resources in the global market, especially through food production on private cerrado properties. Therefore, the conservation of Brazilian biodiversity, as well as the halting of deforestation and the broader degradation of Brazilian ecosystems, is a global responsibility. It is time for the world to turn to the Brazilian savannah as it turns to the Amazon, creating international incentive policies for cerrado research and conservation that encompass both PAs and private properties, thereby bringing hope for the long-term future of this unique ecosystem. I thank the Institutional Training Program of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (PCI-CNPq) from Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC) for the postdoctoral fellowship. I also thank Prof. Iain Gordon, for his reviewing and editing assistance.