“We—producers of soybeans and other grains in the Brazilian Cerrado region—are aware of the need to preserve the biome not only because of its great biodiversity, but also because the Cerrado is where the springs of the main watersheds in South America are born. Nutreco employs over 12,000 people in 37 countries with net sales of € 6.4 billion in 2018. The Cerrado is also one of the most important Brazilian regions for water production – responsible for 40% of Brazil’s freshwater that is essential for agriculture. • Nutreco’s division Skretting is a signatory to the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) to restore forests and end natural forests loss by 2030• Nutreco is an active members of the Roundtable for Responsible Soy (RTRS), the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the FEFAC Sustainability Committee, and the US Soy Export Council Sustainibility Committee • The Cerrado is a unique ecosystem, home to over 5% of global biodiversity and a store of nearly 13.7 billion tonnes of carbon. RECALLING that in more than 30 countries around the world semi-forest or non-forest ecosystems cover about 25% of the Earth’s land area and are of key importance for the sustainable livelihoods of present and future generations;OBSERVING that, in a context of international scrutiny, important efforts are being made to conserve tropical forests, yet the destruction of the savannahs advances with increasing leaps, the lack of funding and attention to achieve the Cerrado’s conservation needs to be addressed;NOTING that the Cerrado is poorly protected (8,26%), far from meeting the Aichi target, and has already lost about 50% of its native vegetation cover through land-use changes, mainly for livestock and agriculture;CONSIDERING the weak environmental governance and increased focus on the Amazon biome and other forest systems in the international market compliance mechanisms and supply-chain regulations;HIGHLIGHTING that substantial investments are needed to address drivers of biodiversity losses and land-use changes, to promote sustainable rehabilitation of degraded areas and restoration of native vegetation, and to create the enabling environment for sustainable practices;KNOWING that it is imperative to cover glaring gaps in the international policy and financial models for savannahs to maintain the functions of non-forest tropical ecosystems that are vital in environmental, economic and social terms;RECOGNIZING that the Cerrado – extending over 2 million square kilometers across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia – is the second largest integral biome in Latin America, the most biodiverse savannah on the planet, and provides key ecosystem services such as water provision, climate regulation and food production;BEARING IN MIND the key contributions of local communities, including traditional and indigenous peoples, in addition to other forms of environmental and social protection, to the maintenance of these vital ecosystem functions; andSTRESSING that there is still no dedicated financial mechanism to support conservation and restoration strategies for the Cerrado, only different funding arrangements that need to be negotiated for each phase to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and which are hard to access for local stakeholders;a. recommend to the governments of Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay to take immediate action to increase the representation of Cerrado in their protected areas networks and promote strategies and mechanisms of land use planning that safeguard the ecological integrity of the biome in the long term.b.

Fernanda T. Brum, Robert L. Pressey, Luis Mauricio Bini, Rafael Loyola. In less than twenty years (2004) the percentage lost rose to 57. The Cerrado biome is Brazil's breadbasket and a major provider of ecosystem services, though these dual roles are increasingly at odds, in part because there are few mechanisms to protect remaining vegetation from large‐scale agricultural expansion.

Brazil's role in favor of the Amazon has been closely watched internationally and the country's reputation for agriculture will depend on maintaining high levels of production in an environmentally sustainable manner. strengthen financing mechanism, such as the Small Grants Program (SGP) funding, to broadly reach Community Based Organizations (CBO) in the Cerrado; andiii. Tropical forester specialized in conservation and development with more than twenty years of experience in Latin American countries. Many of these species and varieties are endemic not only to the hotspot, but also to single sites within it. The biome supports highly diverse biodiverse communities with many unique species and varieties. We must socialize the benefit and the cost as well.