Cerrado Program: a strategy to encourage the restoration of degraded areas and the conservation of the cerrado biome

Abstract

Environmental degradation in Brazil, and especially in the Cerrado, due to the exploitation of
agriculture and livestock, has considerably transformed the profile of the biome, characterizing
it as a region of disordered territorial occupation, with compacted soil, silted up stressed rivers,
contaminated underground water and loss of biodiversity, reflecting the entire ecosystem. In
order to minimize the negative impacts of this scenario and to mitigate the effects of CO2
emissions on the atmosphere, resulting from the change in land use, particularly by converting
forests to grazing and plantation and aiming to promote the continuous reduction of deforestation
rate due to burnings and forest fires, the Cerrado Bahia Program arises. The present
experience report aims to record and publicize the actions proposed in this program, culminating
in restoration actions based on agroecological principles, reinforcing the importance of
alternative practices to the use of fire through activities with small family farmers.