Understanding patterns of land-cover change in the Brazilian Cerrado from 2000 to 2015

Abstract

Clearing tropical vegetation impacts biodiversity, the provision of ecosystem services, and thus ultimately human welfare. We quantified changes in land cover from 2000 to 2015 across the Cerrado biome of northern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. We assessed the potential biophysical and socio-economic drivers of the loss of Cerrado, natural regeneration and net cover change at the municipality level. Further, we evaluated correlations between these land change variables and indicators of human welfare. We detected extensive land-cover changes in the study area, with the conversion of 23 446 km 2 and the natural regeneration of 13 926 km 2 , resulting in a net loss of 9520 km 2 . The annual net loss (−1.2% per year) of the cover of Cerrado is higher than that reported for the whole biome in similar periods. We argue that environmental and economic variables interact to underpin rates of conversion of Cerrado, most severely affecting more humid Cerrado lowlands. While rates of Cerrado regeneration are important for conservation strategies of the remaining biome, their integrity must be investigated given the likelihood of encroachment. Given the high frequency of land abandonment in tropical regions, secondary vegetation is fundamental to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services. Finally, the impacts of Cerrado conversion on human welfare likely vary from local to regional scales, making it difficult to elaborate land-use policies based solely on socio-economic indicators. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation’.

Tropical grassy biomes: linking ecology, human use and conservation

“…R. Soc. B 371: 20160329 Do Espírito Santo et al [10] document land abandonment and encroachment in secondary savannahs of the Brazilian cerrado [12], where this development policy has been to the detriment of the integrity of the system and where, globally, rates of encroachment are highest [4].…”

“…Across Africa, Asia and even South America, fuelwood harvesting is a significant activity [12,78]. Although the fuelwood crisis predicted in the 1970s has not materialized, projections surrounding levels of fuelwood sustainability are varied [77].…”

“…However, unlike other biomes, the contrasting life forms and physiologies of the dominant C 3 woody plant species and the grass species using the C 4 photosynthetic pathway sees the future of TGBs linked, in a profound way, to the ever-rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration and the global political agenda to reduce these emissions. Furthermore, TGBs have generally few policy and legislative mechanisms in place for their protection ( [11], see also the example provided by do Espírito Santo et al [12]). …”

Protected areas and territorial exclusion of traditional communities: analyzing the social impacts of environmental compensation strategies in Brazil

“…The method of classification adopted was the supervised algorithm with Decision Tree (Pal andMather 2003, Maeda et al 2011). A detailed description of the LUCC methods we used is available in Espírito-Santo et al (2016).…”

Multi-Level Land Cover Change Analysis in the Forest-Savannah Transition Zone of the Kintampo Municipality, Ghana

“…Despite the critical role land cover analysis plays, many land cover change analyses ( [6], [13]- [18]) have focused on the identification of patterns of change and simple quantities of change, which often leads to a simplistic understanding of land cover dynamics [19], [20]. Such land cover change analyses normally fail to highlight temporal, intra and inter-land cover changes, which are relevant for policy makers as they indicate the nature and direction of the change among land cover types, and whether the land cover change is driven by a systematic or a random process [19]- [22], [21]. The direction of land cover change must be identified before any causal relationship can be postulated [23].…”