Featured in Planet Earth III, the savannah supports five percent of Earth’s species and acts as a climate buffer.
According to the Global Witness research, almost half of the farms supplying the corporations had cleared trees in one area of the Cerrado.
JBS, Minerva, and Marfrig, the corporations, maintained that their actions were compliant with local laws.
Despite being adjacent to the Amazon, the Cerrado’s ecosystem does not have the same safeguards as its neighbor. Much of the Cerrado is exempt from an expected EU rule that will limit the import of goods made from deforested land because it is not regarded as a forest under the legislation.
According to data from the Brazilian space agency Inpe, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has decreased by half over the past year, but it has increased by 43% in the Cerrado.
Senior investigative journalist Simon Roach of Global Witness told the news, “Everyone knows that the Amazon is in crisis and it has rightly had attention from lawmakers and the public, but next door you have this very important ecosystem that has not been protected to the same extent.”
