Protected Areas

and marsh deer. Many species as thecapybara, tuiuiu and alligator, which areendangered in other parts of Brazil, stillhave vigorous populations in the Pantanalregion.The status of vegetation conservation inthe Pantanal is still good, and much ofits area is still intact. Nonetheless, thesituation is being aggravated, especiallyin some critical locations. Increasingdeforestation has resulted from, aboveall, cultivated grazing areas, woodderivedcoal-making and by humansettlements in inappropriate areas, allof which are contributing to the loss ofhabitats. Deforestation yields severeerosive processes that cause deposition ofsediments in land depressions and alterthe water flow patterns and hydrologicalregimes. Furthermore, the reduction offorest areas implies the elimination ofspecies that depend on such forests.Another factor that contributes to itsdevastation is predatory hunting, which isresponsible for the reduction of importantanimal species such as the spottedleopard and the maned wolf.Vegetation Coverage in thePantanal BiomeThe vegetation coverage map of thePantanal was launched by the Ministryof the Environment and used 2002 dataas basis and indicated that the biome isstill very much preserved. The biome has86.77% of native vegetation coverageand 11.54% of anthropic areas. Thereis, however, a strong tendency for theconversion of natural areas into plantedpastures.The savannah (cerrado) is predominantin 52.60% of the biome, followed byfloristic contacts, which occur in 17.60%of the area. In regards to the anthropicarea, it is observed that agriculture isinexpressive in the biome (0.26%) andallows room for extensive cattle ranchingin planted pastures, which is equivalentto 10.92% of the biome’s areas andoccupies 94.68% of anthropic areas.The results observed were:The review of priority areas for theconservation, sustainable use and sharingof benefits for Brazilian biodiversityof the Cerrado and Pantanal (MMADecree 09/2007), pointed to 50 priorityareas in the Pantanal, 5 of which arealready protected (protected area sitesand indigenous lands). For 26 areas34