The Pampa, the biome of prairies in Brazil's far south, has already lost 54 percent of its original vegetation, according to figures from the Ministry of Environment, which show that 2,183 square kilometers were destroyed between 2002 and 2008. “Industrial forestry, hydroelectric dams and urban growth are the causes of the devastation” in these areas, “which do not receive their due recognition in the national arena,” said Leonardo Stahnke, of the Brazil Pampa Institute.

“The destruction of the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest are important problems, but the plains are home to species as unique to open areas as the species that are adapted to the other ecosystems,” Stahnke said in a Tierramérica interview.

The Brazilian Pampa covers half of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where forests are limited to riverbanks. Of the five national biomes, it presents the least annual destruction, with just 0.20 percent, compared to 0.69 percent of the Cerrado, the Brazilian savanna, located in the west.