- Location of the hotspot and type
of ecosystems found there.
South America, Savanna
- Describe at least one endemic
plant species and one animal species found there
Caryocar brasiliense, blue-eyed ground-dove
- Describe the socio-economic conditions (pre-industrial, transitional, industrial, post-industrial)
Around 67 percent of the Cerrado ecoregion has been already either completely converted or modified in a major way. In contrast, only 1 percent of the total area of the Cerrado Region is protected in parks or reserves. Most of the large-scale human modification in the Cerrado took place in the last 50 years. With a construction of a new capital of Brazil (Brasília), several highways were built, opening the region to a large process of development. During the 1970's and 1980's, several investment programs financed by multilateral funding agencies together with generous government subsides transformed the Cerrado in a new agricultural frontier. Managed pastures and large-scale plantations of soybeans, corn, and irrigated rice were established. As a result, thousands and thousands of square kilometers of cerrado were removed without any studies on environmental impacts.
- Human induced and/or natural
reasons why species biodiversity is decreasing in that region
The biodiversity of cerrado is extraordinary. For instance, for only three orders of insects (Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Isoptera) scientists have recorded 14,425 species, representing at least 47 percent of the species of those orders in Brazil. Biodiversity of cerrado is comprised by at least 10,400 species of vascular plants, 780 of fishes, 180 of reptiles, 113 of amphibians, 837 of birds and 195 of mammals. Most of these species are restricted to cerrado. The percentage of endemic species varies among taxonomic groups, from 4 percent in birds to 50 percent in vascular plants. Cerrado is also a unique evolutionary theater where species from the largest [[South America]n forests (Amazon and Atlantic Forest) and from the largest South American dry habitats (Chaco and Caatinga) intertwine. Humans are destorying habits to make roads which is causing biodiversity to decrease
- What is being done to protect this hotspot
The cerrado shrublands represent the largest ecoregion in the Americas, and extend across much of eastern Brazil, and intoParaguay and Bolivia. This ecoregion is host to a number of endemic species. For the Brazilian portion, out linework follows INEGI classifications, from which we lumped the following vegetation types: "open forest cerrado", "dense forest cerrado", "park cerrado", "woody-grass (Gramineae) cerrado", "savanna-seasonal forest transition", and all "secondary vegetation" and "agricultural activities" encompassed by this broader classification. In Bolivia we followed the Ribera et al. classification of "cerrado savanna" and subsequent linework. In Paraguay we referred to UNESCO, who classify this as "medium-tall grassland with broad-leaved evergreen tree synusia (cerrado)".
- Any interesting information you found about the area
The animals were really cool and the plants were pretty neat
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