This is a book about the Cerrado Biome, a major Brazilian savanna-like ecosystem for which no such summary exists. Biologists outside Brazil know little about the cerrados, despite the fact that the biome covers approximately 22% of the country’s surface area, or 2 million km2. Even though much of the attention of conservationists has focused on rainforests such as the Amazon and Atlantic forests, the cerrados are currently one the most threatened biomes of South America due to the rapid expansion of agriculture. Nearly 50% of the cerrado region is currently under direct human use, and about 35% of its total natural cover has been converted into planted pastures.
