The modification of vegetable covering of cerrado (Brazilian savanna vegetation), which has been substituted by farming and cultures as sugar cane, contributes to global warming. But it is possible to reconcile economical development, agriculture and environmental preservation through acts that protect the environment. Those were some of the subjects discussed in the public hearing of Special Joint Committee on Climate Change, accomplished on Tuesday (11), Cerrado’s day.

Mercedes Bustamante, professor of Ecology department at University of Brasília, explained that the alteration of vegetable covering - for livestock, grains and sugar cane plantation - facilitates the liberation of present carbon in soil and warms the air, because the hot air does not become cool in exchanges with the high cup of trees.

In spite of the fact that cerrado reduces the quantity of carbon in rainy periods, it becomes a source of carbon emission during the period of drought, mainly with the fires. In that way, the specialist evaluated, it is necessary to control deforestation and burnings. The specialist affirmed also that sugar cane production increases the emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), other gas of greenhouse effect, produced from nitrogen fertilizers.

To reduce those effects, the representative of the non-governmental organization The Nature Conservancy, Carlos Klink, emphasized that agricultural activity needs to be considered part of the ecosystem, and, thus, it is possible to reconcile the use of the earth, the economical benefits generated from that with the environmental preservation.

- It is possible to reconcile agriculture and conservation with the promotion of acts that protect the environment and better practices - he defended.