Neglect Brings Destruction of Amazon’s Huge Grasslands

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — The Amazon is a lush rain forest with tall trees and dense vegetation. Right?

Not entirely. One-fifth of the Amazon--about 400,000 square miles, nearly twice the size of France--is open grasslands dotted with brush and small trees.

The “cerrado,” as Brazilians call it, is the world’s richest savanna in terms of biodiversity, including 1,400 species of birds. About half of it lies in the Amazon.

But lacking the lions and other big animals that distinguish the African savanna, the cerrado has been overshadowed by the rain forest. And with neglect came destruction.

“Brazil’s 1988 constitution singles out the Amazon rain forest, the Pantanal wetlands and the Atlantic rain forest for special protection, but says nothing about the cerrado,” said Garo Batmanian, president of the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil.

Deforestation figures for the Amazon don’t include the cerrado. And while landowners in the rain forest are permitted to clear-cut only 20% of their property, in the cerrado the ratio is reversed--owners may raze 80% of the land.

Environmentalists say about half of all Brazilian cerrado has been cut down over the last 35 years.

“The cerrado is more endangered than the Amazon rain forest,” said Eduardo Martins, president of Brazil’s Environment Protection Agency.

More than 80% of the original Amazon rain forest is thought to remain intact.