THE BRAZILIAN CERRADO PRODUCTION SYSTEM CLASSIFICATION AND ITS IMPLICATION TO AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION

The Brazilian Cerrado is a biodiversity hotspot that held important watersheds and is one of the most important food production areas in Brazil. It is very explored by production systems characterized by high rates of natural vegetation removal, burning, poor land management and soil overexploitation. Despite deforestation processes are well investigated, production systems are still poorly understood in the region. Thus, our aim was to apply a classification system to the entire Cerrado area divided in cells of 10.000 hectares. Our classification identified 11 production systems close to deforestation hotspots under the domain of livestock for beef and milk and secondly of agriculture domain. Natural systems were identified inside and alongn the border to protected areas, tree plantation and small farming areas. Besides their importance these natural areas have a low occurrence in the territory. The outputs of this study can be an important tool to support policies of nature conservancy and sustainable development.