059 - Mainstreaming the Cerrado in international cooperation and global environmental funds

059 - Mainstreaming the Cerrado in international cooperation and global environmental funds

Latest version in this language: Version for electronic vote | Published on: 30 Sep 2021

RECALLING that in more than 30 countries around the world semi-forest or non-forest ecosystems cover about 25% of the Earth’s land area and are of key importance for the sustainable livelihoods of present and future generations;

OBSERVING that, in a context of international scrutiny, important efforts are being made to conserve tropical forests, yet the destruction of the savannahs advances with increasing leaps, and that the lack of funding and attention to achieving the Cerrado’s conservation needs to be addressed;

NOTING that the Cerrado is poorly protected (8.26%), far from meeting the Aichi Target, and has already lost about 50% of its native vegetation cover through land-use changes, mainly for livestock and agriculture;

CONSIDERING the weak environmental governance and increased focus on the Amazon biome and other forest systems in international market compliance mechanisms and supply-chain regulations;

HIGHLIGHTING that substantial investments are needed to address drivers of biodiversity losses and land-use changes, to promote sustainable rehabilitation of degraded areas and restoration of native vegetation, and to create the enabling environment for sustainable practices;

KNOWING that it is imperative to cover glaring gaps in the international policy and financial models for savannahs to maintain the functions of non-forest tropical ecosystems that are vital in environmental, economic and social terms;

RECOGNISING that the Cerrado – extending over 2 million square kilometers across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia – is the second largest integral biome in Latin America, the most biodiverse savannah on the planet, and provides key ecosystem services such as water provision, climate regulation and food production;

BEARING IN MIND the key contributions of local communities, including traditional and indigenous peoples, in addition to other forms of environmental and social protection, to the maintenance of these vital ecosystem functions; and

STRESSING that there is still no dedicated financial mechanism to support conservation and restoration strategies for the Cerrado, only different funding arrangements that need to be negotiated for each phase to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and which are hard to access for local stakeholders;

The IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its session in Marseille, France:

ASKS the Director General to:

a. recommend to the governments of Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay that they take immediate action to increase the representation of the Cerrado in their protected area networks and promote strategies and mechanisms of land-use planning that safeguard the ecological integrity of the biome in the long term;

b. call on the European Commission and European Union (EU) Member States to include semi-forest or non-forest ecosystems in the scope of the ‘EU Communication (2019) on stepping up EU Action to protect and restore the world’s forests’, mostly to:

i. assess additional demand-side regulatory and non-regulatory measures to ensure deforestation-free supply chains, associated with commodity imports in the EU;

ii. help partner countries to implement sustainable forest and non-forest-based value chains and promote sustainable bio-economies; and

iii. develop and implement incentive mechanisms for smallholder farmers to maintain and enhance ecosystem services and products provided by sustainable management and agriculture;

c. mobilise the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to:

i. allocate regular support for sustainable land-use practices in the Cerrado biome in their national projects;

ii. strengthen financing mechanisms, such as the Small Grants Program (SGP) funding, to broadly reach Community Based Organisations (CBO) in the Cerrado; and

iii. promote sustainable mechanisms to catalyse regeneration of ecosystems, and to create positive incentives for investments in sustainable management and sustainable forest and non-forest-based value chains to further leverage and increase funding;

d. encourage the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM) for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), as well as other public and private donors, to:

i. increase their support for the Cerrado hotspot; and

ii. boost positive incentives for investments in sustainable management and sustainable forest and non-forest-based value chains; and

e. implement a more effective communication strategy and institutional approaches among international conservation community networks to:

i. recognise the high conservation value of the Cerrado’s biodiversity endemism, and the importance of its high adaptive capacity to extreme events such as fire, drought, floods, in the global climate change scenario;

ii. acknowledge local communities and indigenous peoples’ rights and capability to use non-forest timber products, maintaining their territories and areas in a well-conserved condition; and

iii. encourage the development of markets for sustainable natural products to value the ecosystem as a provider of income and cultural heritage.

The Ecosystem Profile for the Cerrado Biodiversity Hotspot of the CEPF gives an important contribution to support this motion by characterizing the Cerrado as one of the largest and biologically richest tropical savanna regions in the world. The biome supports highly diverse biodiverse communities with many unique species and varieties. Many of these species and varieties are endemic not only to the hotspot, but also to single sites within it. They are unique and valuable, as well as constituting an ecosystem that is vital regarding supplies of water and energy, control of erosion and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Such species are highly vulnerable to habitat loss, hunting, poaching, pollution and other human pressures.

The Ecosystem Profile lists 1,593 terrestrial and freshwater species classified by the IUCN as globally threatened and by Brazilian environmental authorities as nationally threatened, as well as rare fish and rare plant species. There are many more species for which data is inadequate to allow full assessment of their status. For many species, the key to conservation is protection of adequate areas in appropriate habitats. The profile, therefore, identifies important sites within the Cerrado, known as key biodiversity areas (KBAs), where these threatened species are able to survive. In total, 761 KBAs have been identified in the Cerrado using records of the presence of threatened and vulnerable species.

In some cases, the protection of discrete areas of habitat within a KBA may not ensure the survival of a species, especially where the species ranges widely over the landscape or occurs at a very low density. These large areas play a vital role in ensuring connectivity among KBAs. In doing so, they also play an important role in maintaining ecosystem functions, which are crucial for nature and for human livelihoods in the Cerrado, other biomes and neighboring countries, and even the whole planet, in the perspectives of climate change.

Regional fragmentation has had a defining influence on social, political and economic landscapes. Across parts of southern Brazil, northeastern Paraguay, and eastern Bolivia, a mosaic of habitat types come together: wet and dry forests, grasslands and savannas, marshes and wetlands, and gallery forests and shrublands. An average of 50 to 80 inches (1,270 to 2,032 mm) of rain falls each year, washing over the Cerrado’s nutrient-poor but well-drained soils.

The major threats to the Cerrado now and in the near future are cattle-raising, annual crops (mainly soybeans, corn and cotton), biofuel (sugar cane), charcoal, fire misusage and mono-species tree plantations. Erosion, invasive species, permanent crops, land grabbing, transport systems and climate change (both local and global) are also relevant. These activities and processes have led to deforestation at the rate of 6,000 km² per year, in Brazil. With the current knowledge, the hotspot lost approximately 50% of its natural coverage.

  • Asociación Guyra Paraguay Conservación de Aves [Paraguay]
  • Ecoa - Ecologia e Ação [Brazil]
  • Fundação o Boticário de Proteção à Natureza [Brazil]
  • Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano [Bolivia]
  • Instituto Sociedade, População e Natureza [Brazil]
  • Sociedade para a Conservação das Aves do Brasil - SAVE Brasil [Brazil]
  • Wereld Natuur Fonds - Nederland [The Netherlands]
  • World Wide Fund for Nature - Brasil [Brazil]

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