The Cerrado has already lost around 70% of its original coverage. The most biodiverse savanna in the world, holding 33% of all Brazilian biodiversity, home to the three largest river basins in South America, the Cerrado is today also the most threatened biome in Brazil. Saving what remains, through preservation actions, is necessary and urgent. But it's not enough. It is also necessary to restore.
The big problem is that the Cerrado is very difficult to restore. In recent decades, several restoration alternatives have been tested. But none proved to be completely effective. To understand the potential of each of them and the possibility of being combined into a joint strategy, research supported by FAPESP compiled a broad set of data from 82 different areas, distributed across five States and the Federal District. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
“We compared how similar these areas under restoration were to the conserved areas, preserving the physiognomies of fields and savannas predominant in the biome. And, in each area, we evaluate the effectiveness of passive [natural regeneration] and active [sowing, planting tree seedlings, transplanting plants, roots and soil] restoration techniques”, says Natashi Pilon, professor at the University's Institute of Biology State of Campinas (IB-Unicamp) and first author of the research.
The study investigated 712 species, typical of the well-preserved Cerrado. Of these, 338 (47%) were not found in any of the restoration sites. As if that weren't enough, of 520 species recorded exclusively in restoration sites, 70% were not typical of the Cerrado. In other words, species that should be present in restored areas are not, and species that should not be present are.
“In restoration projects, species that are not characteristic of the Cerrado are being introduced. This is the case of ruderals [which grow spontaneously in vacant lots]. Although native to Brazil, these species are not characteristic of any specific biome. And they compromise the stability of the ecosystem in long-term restoration”, highlights Pilon.
Access the full article on the Agência Fapesp website.
Access the article Challenges and directions for open ecosystems biodiversity restoration: an overview of the techniques applied for Cerrado.
