Elsevier has just published the Encyclopedia of the World's Biomes, a major reference work (5 volumes and 3,500 pages) that aims to describe the diversity of the world's natural regions. Together with Prof. Tom Lacher from Texas A&M University, Prof. Silva contributed two chapters: one on the Cerrado, the largest South American savanna, and another on the Caatinga, the largest Neotropical Dry Forest region. The expansion of human activities and climate change profoundly threaten the biodiversity of both biomes. Profs. Silva and Lacher outlined several suggestions on how societies living in these large regions could shift to a more sustainable development model.
