Brazilian Pampa Rangelands: Challenges in the Face of Soybean Expansion

The Pampa biome extends throughout the Uruguayan territory, part of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It is characterized by being a natural pastoral ecosystem, in which livestock represents the best option for sustainable use for food production purposes, and favors the conservation of its rangelands. In addition to contributing to the conservation of natural pastures, it was along with livestock activities that the gaucho\u27s way of life was developed. However, the cultivation of soybeans and eucalyptus plantations in the Pampa in all its extension is the localized version of the global dynamics of valuing the production of agricultural commodities affecting various socio-ecosystems of natural fields around the world. In Brazil, the Pampa is present only in the southern half of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and is the second most devastated biome in the country. Between 2000 and 2019 there is a dizzying growth in the areas cultivated with soy in the Pampa, with an increase of 24% of the areas cultivated with soy. During the same period, natural fields also decreased by 24%. The expansion of areas cultivated with soybeans is mainly due to the high price of commodities, the availability of land for rent in the region, the strong incentive on the part of the Brazilian State to produce commodities for export and the regularization of genetically modified seeds. Thus, extensive livestock farming considered economically unattractive when compared to more intensive production systems and the lack of incentives for producers to maintain natural fields sometimes imposes difficulties to maintain rangelands. In view of this scenario, the objective of this work is to identify how the advance of soy in the Brazilian Pampa can represent an obstacle to the maintenance of natural fields as a base for livestock