Cerrado

Cerrado
Vegetation in Pirineus State Park, Goiás
Map of the Cerrado ecoregion as delineated by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Ecology
Realm	Neotropical
Biome	tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Borders	List Alto Paraná Atlantic forests Araucaria moist forests Bahia interior forests Atlantic dry forests Caatinga Chiquitano dry forests Humid Chaco Maranhão Babaçu forests Mato Grosso tropical dry forests Pantanal
Geography
Area	1,910,037 km2 (737,469 sq mi)
Countries	Brazil Bolivia Paraguay
Conservation
Conservation status	Vulnerable
Global 200	Cerrado woodlands and savannas
Protected	433,581 km2 (23%)[1]

The Cerrado (Portuguese pronunciation: [seˈʁadu]) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the Brazilian highlands – the Planalto. The main habitat types of the Cerrado consist of forest savanna, wooded savanna, park savanna and gramineous-woody savanna. The Cerrado also includes savanna wetlands and gallery forests.^[2]

The second largest of Brazil's major habitat types, after the Amazonian rainforest, the Cerrado accounts for a full 21 percent of the country's land area (extending marginally into Paraguay and Bolivia).^[3] About 75% of the Cerrado’s 2 million km² is privately owned.^[4]

Vast amounts of research have shown that the Cerrado is one of the richest of all tropical savanna regions and has high levels of endemism. Characterizing it by its enormous ranges of plant and animal biodiversity, World Wide Fund for Nature named the Cerrado the biologically richest savanna in the world, with about 10,000 plant species and 10 endemic bird species.^[3] There are nearly 200 species of mammal in the Cerrado, though only 14 are endemic.^[3] The large fraction of private ownership makes protection difficult though.^[4]