Shifting Frontiers: Land-Use Transitions and Agricultural Intensification in Brazil’s Cerrado
Gillian Galford
Research Associate Professor, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources; Fellow of the Gund Institute for the Environment at the University of Vermont
Brazil’s Cerrado, the world’s most biodiverse savanna, is being rapidly transformed by agriculture and global markets. In this talk, Dr. Gillian Galford draws on geospatial and remote sensing analyses combined with geopolitical and socioeconomic perspectives to show how deforestation—primarily for pasture—often precedes cropland development. Shifts in crop rotations reveal both intensifying land use and expanding agricultural frontiers, while global trade demand accelerates these changes. Together, these dynamics illuminate the powerful forces reshaping one of Earth’s most critical ecosystems.
