By Michael Becker, Coordinator of the Regional Implementation Team of CEPF Cerrado
During the last three years the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) has been supporting dialogue projects for the sustainable use of natural resources in the Cerrado. There are approximately 55 projects encompassing different strategic directions described in... Ecosystem Profilewhich gave us a solid scientific basis for working in the biome.
This profile, created by The Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), Conservation International (CI-Brazil) and CEPF itself, It involved the participation of 130 public and private institutions, which were consulted in five workshops throughout the territory encompassing the Cerrado.
O profile It represents an excellent compendium for all those who wish to invest in the conservation of natural resources and the sustainable management of the territory with all its actors: traditional peoples and communities, indigenous peoples, farmers, and the population of urban centers.
As strategic lines The areas of expertise, highlighted by the profile, are quite comprehensive:
1. Promote the adoption of best practices in agriculture in priority corridors;
2. Support the creation/expansion and effective management of protected areas in priority corridors;
3. To promote and strengthen production chains associated with the sustainable use of natural resources and ecological restoration in the hotspot;
4. Support the protection of endangered species in the hotspot;
5. Support the implementation of tools to integrate and share monitoring data in order to better inform decision-making processes in the hotspot;
6. Strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations to promote improved management of territories and natural resources and to support other investment priorities in the hotspot.
Anyone who has worked in program management can understand our apprehension as managers in dealing with such diverse areas. However, throughout the work and as the program's portfolio consolidated – with projects from Maranhão to Mato Grosso do Sul – it became clear that this diversity is precisely one of the great characteristics of the program. Cerrado, this immense hinterland of 2 million km²2.
We have projects with municipalities and quilombola communities; indigenous peoples and coffee producers; botanists and ornithologists; extractivists and NGOs. This diversity, with each part contributing to the formation of... sustainable landscapes, that's what is expressed in Ecosystem Profile and, consequently, in the program's performance in the Cerrado.
The strategies also engage with the territories and with the priority corridors investment:
Viewpoint – Tables
Central Corridor of Matopiba
Veadeiros – Pouso Alto – Kalungas
Sertão Veredas – Peruaçu
The fact that the delineation of these territories always follows the boundaries of the river basins reflects the importance of the element. waterThis is important not only for biodiversity, but also for production and for all those who benefit from this element so essential to life, such as the cities of the Cerrado.
Here, a special thanks To everyone who worked on preparing the Profile, especially the senior advisor at ISPN, Don Sawyer, a researcher who has been contributing to the proper use and conservation of the Cerrado for many years.
We hope that the official publication of this profile and its documentation in the bibliographic catalog can inspire other projects and research in this immense biome that is home to so many peoples, landscapes, and such essential knowledge for biodiversity, for production, and for the collective imagination in Brazil.
"The backlands are like this: you push them back, but suddenly they come back to surround you from all sides. The backlands are when you least expect it." - Guimarães Rosa.