Home to the headwaters and the largest portion of South American watersheds and the upper catchments of large Amazon tributaries, the Cerrado biome plays a vital role in Brazil’s surface and groundwater availability.
Agribusiness expands at the cost of Cerrado’s biodiversity, leading to ever-increasing deforestation rates that favour a ‘water scarcity’ narrative despite the biome’s ‘water abundance’ potential.
Recently published data from the MapBiomas initiative show that the Cerrado biome lost 1.8 Mi hectares of water surface between 1985 – 2020. However, water-related conservation efforts are under way to fulfil the yet untapped water abundance potential of the Cerrado biome.
