Brazil’s economic transformation the past several years, including its shift from debtor to creditor nation, is in part due to the development of its
cerrado. There is a dark side, however, to the
cerrado’s reinvention from wild savannah to agribusiness giant that supplies much of the world’s soy, corn, and beef. According to the World Wildlife Fund, this region that covers one-fifth of
Brazil and contains 5% of all life on earth is
threatened by commercial
farming and the fertilizers that make agriculture possible--much of it to produce animal feed.
I have written about the dilemma over the
cerrado on
The Guardian. While the Amazon has long attracted much of the world’s environmental activism, the Brazilian version of the prairie has remained under the radar. No longer is that the case--the WWF’s UK
division is trying to win the hearts and minds of consumers in the United Kingdom with this short
film that urges them to send emails to supermarkets to source soy products that are not linked to the
cerrado’s deforestation:
Save the Cerrado from WWF-UK on Vimeo.
We welcome a welcome debate on this valuable region. Please share your thoughts. In the meantime, enjoy the brilliant photos of the shadows that emerge throughout the
cerrado.
An Armadillo shadow in the cerrado, courtesy of the WWF
Shadows of the cerrado's landscape
Anteater in Brazil's cerrado
[...] Wiser management is important because the cerrado covers one-fifth of the country–and boasts five percent of all life on earth. Many of the cerrado’s plants have medicinal properties that can combat illnesses from bacterial [...]