Brazil's Cerrado savanna sacrificed in the name of industrial soya, maize farming

Reporters

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made saving the Amazon rainforest – now a key condition for a trade deal between the EU and South America's Mercosur bloc – a priority for his government. A year after Lula came to power, his gamble has paid off: deforestation has been halved in the Amazon. But this success comes at the cost of sacrificing another ecosystem that's just as vital to Brazil: the Cerrado. This savanna has already lost half of its natural vegetation due to intensive farming, notably for soya and maize. FRANCE 24's Fanny Lothaire, Louise Raulais and Anne-Laure Desarnauts report.