Abstract
Roughly 60% of all deforested lands in the Brazilian Amazon are covered with pastures, putting cattle raising in evidence as a major driver of deforestation and also of forests’ regrowth. Still, the role of cattle raising diversity in the landscape dynamics of this region remains poorly understood. To contribute to this discussion, we combined data from semi-structured interviews and quantitative spatially explicit methods to characterize and spatialize cattle raising systems and explore the effects of this diversity over secondary vegetation between 2004 and 2014 in Pará, a hotspot of deforestation and core region of cattle production. We quantified the use of different pasture management strategies to classify small- and large-scale operations into systems with high or low impact against pastures’ degradation. High-impact systems were mapped in regions with consolidated infrastructure and high accumulated deforestation, where they expanded. On the contrary, low-impact systems were more widespread and found near forest frontiers, shrinking over time. High-impact systems had less secondary vegetation, while under low-impact systems, as a result of strategies with little or no effect against degradation, the historical pattern of concentration of this cover prevailed. Better infrastructure and access to markets as well as higher accumulated deforestation are underlying conditions related to the emergence of intensification and, as it is still unclear whether intensification is indeed capable of sparing land, the expansion of intensive cattle raising systems has the potential to configure landscapes with reduced forested areas, either primary or secondary.
Highlights
60% of deforested lands in the Brazilian Amazon are covered with pastures, making of cattle raising the main deforestation driver, and the most pervasive land-use in the biome, where one-third of national herds are concentrated (Arima et al 2005; Bowman et al 2012; Lapola et al 2014; IBGE 2016)
We explore the effects of different levels of intensity of pasture management over secondary vegetation in Pará, a historical hotspot of deforestation, and a core region of cattle production in Brazil (Prodes 2019; IBGE 2016)
Lowimpact systems prevail, reproducing the historical pattern of cattle raising that still favors the accumulation of secondary vegetation as it advances over forest frontiers
Summary
60% of deforested lands in the Brazilian Amazon are covered with pastures, making of cattle raising the main deforestation driver, and the most pervasive land-use in the biome, where one-third of national herds are concentrated (Arima et al 2005; Bowman et al 2012; Lapola et al 2014; IBGE 2016). The historical expansion of cattle raising in the Brazilian Amazon has followed a pattern of deforestation, implementation of pastures with little or no technical concerns, early degradation, abandonment, and forest regeneration, as expansion proceeds over newly deforested lands (Costa 2004, 2009; Escada et al 2005; Dias-Filho 2011, 2015). Disconnected from other conservation and law enforcement measures, it is not clear whether cattle raising intensification could produce conservation results or, on the contrary, aggravate social-environmental impacts as intensified systems expand yet requiring large amounts of land and natural resources, agricultural inputs and government subsidies (Merry and Soares 2017; Garrett et al 2018; Kaimovitz and Angelsen 2008)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
