Agricultural land use change in the Brazilian Pampa Biome: The reduction of natural grasslands

This manuscript analyzes the land use changes and its conjectural drivers in the Brazilian Pampa Biome. Therefore, land use changes in the municipalities of this biome were collected from the Brazilian Agricultural Censuses of 1975, 1985, 1995/1996 and 2006. To analyze the changes in the land use for natural pastures, pampa's microregions were compared in 10-year by a relative growth rate. There has been a 26% decrease in natural pastures in the Brazilian Pampa Biome since 1975, with a negative growth of -12.5% between 1975 and 1985. The activities with the highest growth were cultivated forests and temporary crops (1985-2005), and the increment of the area dedicated for those agricultural activities was related to the decrease in the area of natural pastures in the Pampa. Temporary crops (soy) and cultivated forests (forestry) began to integrate Pampa's landscape mainly between 1995 and 2005, changing the native configuration of the biome. Finally, sharing information on the Brazilian Pampa Biome phenomena will facilitate future dialogue among all stakeholders, and this manuscript is expected to contribute to the global debate on the conservation of natural landscapes, especially natural grasslands. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.