Cerrado wetlands, crucial for regulating river flows, combatting soil erosion, and providing habitats, are legally protected but frequently overlooked on the ground. New studies show alarming enforcement and monitoring holes, threatening the future of these crucial habitats. Instead, experts from Brazilian higher education institutions emphasize a devastating reality. They argue that these wetlands are legally designated under the law as Areas of Permanent Preservation, but poor enforcement and implementation have led to widespread damage.
The Cerrado region is Brazil’s “water tank.” It serves as the front line, directly producing the springs and seeps that feed the headwaters of our nation’s most important watersheds. This unique biome is crucial to maintaining Brazil’s water supply. With these wetlands increasingly under attack from the pressures of ag expansion and urban development, their protection is increasingly tenuous.
Legal Framework and Institutional Challenges
Law 12,651 provides the institutional and legal basis for wetland conservation in the Brazilian Cerrado. It designates every natural water table outcrop, even diffuse seeps, as Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs). Despite this classification, enforcement remains inadequate. Alessandra Bassani, a leading researcher in this field, sounds a grim note of caution. Law enforcement agencies, too, have failed to act.
Contrary to Bassani’s findings, this was in fact the case, as recognized by concurrent researcher Rafael Silva Oliveira. To avoid a future hydrological disaster in the Cerrado and its neighboring ecosystems such as the Pantanal and many rivers that compose the Amazon basin, he underlines the immediate need to conserve diffuse seeps. These seeps are necessary to pumping the intricate rhythm of water flow in these highly sensitive, interconnected ecosystems.
To address the disconnect between legal protections and on-the-ground practices, experts advocate for a more rigorous application of existing laws. The urgent need for institutional action is underscored by alarming statistics: between 1985 and 2020, over 580,000 hectares of native vegetation within Cerrado wetlands have been lost, with 61% attributed to agricultural conversion.
The Role of Diffuse Seeps in Hydrology
Diffuse seeps are an important and underestimated component of the Cerrado wetlands hydrology. These zones should return to their historic role of trapping rainfall and slowly releasing it into river channels. Effective communication between researchers, policymakers, and land managers is dependent on the clear and unwavering use of technical terms. Words like “seeps” and “diffuse seeps” are critical to making that distinction clear. This newfound clarity will enable more proactive and efficient management practices, while raising the profile of wetlands’ critical contributions through conservation efforts.
You can find these non-riparian wetlands across all of Brazil’s biomes. These are wet clean fields, wet dirty fields, palm swamps and campos de murundu. Further, they serve as vital arteries for our country’s overall biodiversity and ecological health. Researchers advocate for appreciation of these wetlands as vital for their conservation efforts and disaster management purposes.
You have an incredible toolbox at your disposal, from remote sensing, to piezometers, to identification of hydromorphic soils. These new approaches have so far not been adopted into government oversight. The Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), created to track land use, has the potential to be a strong tracking tool if appropriately executed. Without proper training and resources provided for local decision makers, these techniques are too often left on the shelf.
Bridging the Gap Between Science and Policy
A group of Brazilian researchers from institutions such as UNICAMP, UnB, UFMG, and UFSC has highlighted the disconnect between technical language and legal terminology as a significant barrier to effective conservation efforts. This gap leads to what they call institutional invisibility when it comes to protecting wetlands.
With relatively simple field methods, we can go a long way to pinpoint and preserve these key chunks of habitat. For example, researchers suggest digging just 30 centimeters into the soil during the rainy season can help differentiate between saturated and non-saturated lands. These easy-to-implement strategies might equip local governments and private citizens alike to take greater ownership over preservation efforts.
The art of marrying scientific knowledge with policy frameworks will prove vital to protecting the ecosystems of Cerrado wetlands. Here’s how Brazil can step up its commitment to protect these vital ecosystems. Finally, it should require greater collaboration between researchers, federal and state transportation officials, and local stakeholders.