Abstract
Brazil's Midwest is composed of four biomes: the Cerrado, predominant in the region; the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world; the Amazon, which occupies part of Mato Grosso; and the Atlantic Forest. The objective of this study was to identify the evolution of occupation and use of land in the rural settlements of the Brazilian Midwest depending on the biome of location. A total of 54 settlements distributed in the four biomes of the region were analyzed using direct observation and Landsat images from the years 2004 and 2014. Using the software QGIS 2.8 Wien, the vegetation indices NDVI and NDWI were used to classify agricultural, pasture and forest areas by biome. Native vegetation is declining in most of the analyzed settlements and pastures, for milk production, occupied the largest area. Between 2004 and 2014, pasture areas expanded to the detriment of forests. Although they have the highest percentage of environmental preservation areas, the settlements we analyzed in the Amazon biome do not comply with legislation. Part of the forest in these settlements was transformed into areas of bushy cerrado. However, there was an increase in forests in the settlements of the Atlantic Forest biome.
Highlights
The Brazilian Midwest is characterized by great diversity in vegetation and integrates four of the six national biomes: the Cerrado, or Brazilian savannah, which is predominant in the region; the Pantanal, a flooded savannah; the Amazon, which occupies part of Mato Grosso; and the Atlantic Forest, the most threatened biome in Brazil
In the case of the settlements located in the Amazonian and Mata Atlantica biomes, the native areas are essentially constituted of forest, bushy cerrado areas indicating areas of forest degradation by cattle grazing or vegetation recovery after deforestation or abandonment of pastures
The analysis by biome revealed that the settlements remained within the limits of the Law most of the time, except for the settlements located in the Amazon, where the limit of 80% of environmental reserve seems to have been difficult to maintain for the settlers
Summary
The Brazilian Midwest is characterized by great diversity in vegetation and integrates four of the six national biomes: the Cerrado, or Brazilian savannah, which is predominant in the region; the Pantanal, a flooded savannah; the Amazon, which occupies part of Mato Grosso; and the Atlantic Forest, the most threatened biome in Brazil. These biomes give the Midwest great environmental importance in the global context (Figure 1). The Cerrado occupies approximately 24% of Brazilian territory and extends through the central region of the country. In the Midwest region, the Cerrado covers the whole of the Federal District, where is located Brasília, the Federal capital, 97% of the state of Goiás, 61% of Mato Grosso do Sul and around 40% of Mato Grosso (IBGE 2004)
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