Diversity of cattle raising systems and its effects over forest regrowth in a core region of cattle production in the Brazilian Amazon

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.

The Role of High-Volume Ranches as Cattle Suppliers: Supply Chain Connections and Cattle Production in Mato Grosso

“…However, the relationships between suppliers and slaughterhouses seem to be rather loose: most properties supplied to SIF plants in a single year out of six years. Cattle ranchers are also very diverse and versatile in their strategies of land use and trade; directly supplying to SIF slaughterhouses is just one of several trading possibilities available to these ranchers [17,25]. Thus, slaughterhouses may need new incentives to influence high volume suppliers to reduce deforestation on their own properties or to consider avoiding purchases from other properties with deforestation.…”

Comparative Analysis of the Global Forest/Non-Forest Maps Derived from SAR and Optical Sensors. Case Studies from Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado Biomes

“…The dominant forest classes present in the Amazon biome are the primary rainfall forest often subdivided in dense, mixed, and open perennial forests as well as the mangroves found in the coastal region of Amapá, Maranhão, and Pará [53]. These forest formations present relatively little spectral and radiometric confusion in both optical and SAR satellite images with respect to the following other representative LULC classes present in this biome: savannah-like formations mostly found in large spots in the states of Amapá and Roraima [54]; extensive pasturelands for cattle beef production mostly found in the states of Mato Grosso, Pará, and Rondônia [55]; highly mechanized grain production in the Amazon/Cerrado ecotone region in the Mato Grosso State [56]; and the mosaic of grass, shrub, and trees found in the lowlands along the Tocantins/Araguaia River basin in the border of the states of Tocantins and Pará [57]. Figure 7 shows the relations of the forest estimations obtained by TanDEM-X, ALOS-2, and Landsat 8 OLI image interpretation at the sampling level (929 image samples) in the Amazon biome.…”

Rural landscapes and agrarian spaces under soybean expansion dynamics: a case study of the Santarém region, Brazilian Amazonia

“…For example, in cattle raising systems, abandoned pastures become secondary vegetation in cattle raising systems. In small-scale family farming systems, slash-and-burn agriculture remains common practice in the forest and subsequently abandoning the area for a period of 2 to 3 years, in order to recover soil fertility through the regeneration of vegetation, before using it again (Schwartz et al 2017;Costa 2016;Carvalho et al 2020). However, its resurgence may be another effect of policies and programs in the region, as areas of expanding mechanized agriculture have been embargoed in both inside and outside settlements.…”