Abstract
The Midwest region of Brazil has a high concentration of land and is the primary producer of grains and livestock in the country, activities with a negative impact on environment. Agrarian reform allows redistribution of land and reinforces family agriculture, which is considered to be favorable to environmental protection. The aim of this study was to use field and remote observations to verify the evolution of environmental preservation and land use in rural settlements in the Midwest region of Brazil. 54 settlements distributed in the region were analyzed. We used images from Landsat 5 satellite obtained by the Thematic Mapper sensor in 2004 and images from Landsat 8 satellite from 2014. The NDVI and NDWI vegetation indexes were used to classify urban, agricultural, pasture, savannah and forest areas. Forests declined in all states, however Mato Grosso, the only one with Amazonian forest, where settlements presented lowest compliance with environmental legislation. The evolution indicates the transformation of forest areas into savannah. Settlers predominantly engage in dairy farming, which requires large areas of land and thus exerts significant pressure on the environment. Productive areas are poorly exploited, and better technical assistance could have a significant impact on environmental protection.
Highlights
The Midwest region of Brazil is known for its large areas of agricultural production, focused on the production of commodities
Even if the differences were not significant, it is possible to observe that the settlements in the State of Mato Grosso have a higher average percentage of areas destined to forests
This because the state has 54% of its territory located in the Amazon biome, where the areas of environmental preservation must be at least 80% of the rural property area, against 20% in the other biomes
Summary
The Midwest region of Brazil is known for its large areas of agricultural production, focused on the production of commodities. Egler (2012) states that this region features the greatest extent of cultivated area and the largest production of agricultural commodities in Brazil. According to Castro (2014), the expansion of agricultural activities in the region caused damage to the environment, which suggests that these activities could have some difficulties to be sustainable in the future. In addition to these factors, it is important to remember that the concentration of land According to Hogan et al (2002), agricultural activities require elimination of areas of native vegetation and introduction of monocultures for commercial use, which causes severe environmental imbalances, especially a reduction of biodiversity; contamination of the natural environment; compaction, erosion and fertility loss of soils; and a reduction of water quality and quantity.
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