Savannas in the twenty-first century

Savannas are home to over a billion people. These people come from a range of cultural, social and economic backgrounds, but what unites them all is their dependence on the savannas for their livelihoods. Savannas provide the resources, whether it be land, food or wealth, for people to survive. Yet, despite this reliance from such a huge population, savannas are currently being destroyed and given over to other forms of land use. In the cerrado, for example, the rate of agricultural expansion and subsequent habitat destruction presently exceeds that of the Amazon rain forest (Klink et al., 1993) (Figure 10.1).