Emergy diagnosis of land-use change and recovery proposal for an area in the Brazilian Cerrado Luz Selene Buller, Enrique Ortega, Gustavo Bayma-Silva and Ivan Bergier Ecological Engineering Laboratory, Food Engineering School, State University of Campinas Laboratory of Ecological Engineering

2 This process was especially intense in the Mato Grosso do Sul State in the Pantanal wetland border, where only 31% of the native vegetation is preserved. This expansion was encouraged by governmental policies similar to the most recent agricultural frontier occupation called MaToPiBa (expansion over Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia states).

There is a huge international pressure to decrease deforestation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most part of Brazilian GHG emissions are produced by cattle production systems (Lapola et al., 2014). A solution is the substitution of monocrops and extensive cattle systems for agroforestry systems that allow the ecological resilience (Power, 2010; Tittonell, 2014).

Study Area São Gabriel do Oeste county in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, is representative of the Cerrado’s land-use change. Currently, 72% of its native vegetation was deforested for anthropogenic uses. In the central region, during the 70’s, there had been massive deforestation for coffee, which was succeeded by soybean monocultures in the 80’s. In addition, there was intense replacement of the natural savannah by cultivated pastures for cattle grazing.

5 Land use maps for 1984, 1994, 2004 and 2014 are available at:

Modelling political forces acting on the Cerrado’s deforestation to promote commoditized agriculture 6 Brazilian agriculture was converted from traditional systems into modern technological ones with high productivity and strong dependence on external inputs. Agricultural expansion have boosted the conversion of areas with high biodiversity into deforested areas, which produce disservices and undesirable byproducts, (negative externalities and environmental impacts), as well as shortage of diversified food by virtue of the concentration on soybean/meat production.

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During the agricultural expansion, investments were made for the occupation of arable land in the Cerrado together with research in science for tropical agriculture adapted to Brazilian soils and climate (Rada and Valdes, 2012). Over the four past decades, the Government had an inductive role and its share in total investments was only 6%.

11 Commoditized agriculture profitability in currency basis

12 Also, commodities are becoming not profitable for producers. Soil loss is a particular concernment associated with sediment deposition in the Pantanal flood plain.

13 Emergy Assessment in agricultural expansion

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Agroforestry systems as an option for the conventional agriculture 18

19 Emergy Assessment in agroecological transition (land use for agroforestry systems in %)

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21 Agroforestry systems are more efficient in energy conversion, therefore incorporate less emergy while producing the same amount of energy per year in the same area for a large diversity of food items.

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CONCLUSION The agricultural system adopted in the occupation of the Cerrado biome is unsustainable, causes imbalances and attend the interests of a small part of the population: the agribusiness lobby which involves politicians and businessmen. Potential investments in agroforestry systems can leverage the restoration of essential ecosystem services, set fair social conditions and ensure food security for the future generations. 23

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements: the first author thanks for the scholarship. We kindly thank the support of São Gabriel do Oeste City Hall. This work was supported by MCTI/ grants / and /