Our solutions

WWF-Brazil was created in 1996 and one of its first initiatives was to promote tourism, agro-ecology and environmental education and the conservation of the Chapada dos Veadeiros plateau in the state of Goias, the site of one of the most important remaining Cerrado areas in Brazil. Check the side of this page for the folder on the Veadeiros Project. The Cerrado is one of WWF Network’s 35 top priority areas for conservation.
 
Currently WWF-Brazil is supporting the recuperation and suitable use of the biome by means of actions in the Upper Paraguay River basin that are of fundamental importance to the maintenance of the seasonal flooding and ebbing of the waters of the Pantanal and other actions on the triple border of the states of Minas Gerais, Bahia and Goiás, and in the region of the Grande Sertão Veredas and Cavernas do Peruaçu National Parks where the creation of a mosaic of protected areas has been decreed embracing an area of 1.5 million hectares which amounts to almost 8% of the protected areas of this biome.

How do we work?

• By stimulating good environmental practices in agriculture and livestock raising
• By supporting the creation and implementation of protected areas
• By expanding scientific knowledge
• By supporting projects aimed at the conservation of species
• By supporting capacity building and income generating activities and good environmental practices
• By encouraging civil society participation in environmental actions
• By supporting the definition of public policies on conservation
• By articulating with Bolivian and Paraguayan institutions to foster studies on the conservation of the Cerrado biome

Partnerships

Integrated vision
 

The Cerrado has a future (Video in Portuguese).
26 minute-long video edited by WWF-Brazil to show Cerrado beauty, history and the organisation’s activities in the Chapada dos Veadeiros region, in Goiás.

Protected Areas

Protected areas are highly important for the role they play in curbing deforestation and the conservation of biodiversity. Furthermore, they foster a relationship with the communities in the surrounding areas in the form of environmental education activities raising awareness of the importance of the fauna and flora and other natural resources. The PAs also provide environmental services such as supplying water, maintaining the good quality of the air and avoiding erosion processes.
 
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recommends that the minimum area for conservation in the form of integral protection is 10% of a country’s area. Brazil however, has adopted the goal established by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity which stipulates 10% of national territory in the form of protected areas in regimes of integral protection or sustainable use.
 
In the Cerrado, protected areas under a regime of integral protection or sustainable use currently encompass 168 thousand square kilometres, corresponding to 8.2% of the biome’s total area.  However only 3% of the total protected area is under integral protection.

Programme background