The Nature Conservancy - Great Grasslands

Go Deeper

The Nature Conservancy in Brazil
Nearly one in every four plant species on Earth can be found in Brazil.

Serra do Tombador Preserve
Working with Brazilian partner O Boticário, The Nature Conservancy has created a new 22,000-acre private preserve in the heart of the Cerrado grasslands of central Brazil.

While the Amazon rainforest gets much of the attention, most of the Brazilian land cleared for ranching and farming is in the Cerrado, a vast stretch of grasslands and savanna about half the size of North America’s Great Plains. In recent years more than 50 percent of the region has been cleared or plowed under; only 2 percent is protected.

But in one corner of the Cerrado—the 1,400-square-mile district of Lucas do Rio Verde—The Nature Conservancy is partnering with the local government and all 360 major landowners to help ensure at least 35 percent of their lands are protected as natural habitat, the amount required by Brazilian law. “We have been working in the Cerrado for a long time, but this is the first time that we have been able to protect such a large area,” says Marli Santos, an information officer for the Conservancy in Brasilia. Using satellite imagery and high-tech mapping systems, the Conservancy mapped out nearly 900,000 acres of private land and created restoration strategies for each property.

Most of the landowners raise cattle or plant soy, and each will have to decide whether to restore their land or buy pristine land elsewhere, says Santos. “It’s probably a better economic option for most of them to pay into protecting another place, and we are working with them to purchase areas of high conservation value.”

—Curtis Runyan

Nature picture credits: Photo © Spot4/Senografia/TNC Brazil (Farmers and ranchers have cleared all but 31 percent of the Brazilian county of Lucas do Rio Verde. But now local government aims to restore or protect at least 89,000 acres.)