Grasslands and savannas support 40% of known species and hold up to a third of global carbon stocks — and are now being converted to agriculture roughly four times faster than forests, largely unnoticed.
Grasslands, savannas, and other non-forest natural ecosystems collectively support around 40% of all known animal and plant species and hold an estimated 20–35% of global carbon stocks, much of it stored underground in root systems and soil rather than in visible biomass — making these ecosystems easy to underestimate from the surface.
Between 2005 and 2020, the world converted roughly 190 million hectares of natural ecosystems — mostly grasslands, savannas, and wetlands — into pasture and farmland, including as much as 95 million hectares of non-forest ecosystems converted specifically to annual cropland. Grasslands and wetlands are being converted to agriculture at a rate roughly four times higher than forests.
Source: World Resources Institute; PNAS, 2026Brazil accounts for approximately 13% of the world's non-forest land conversion, with most losses concentrated in the Cerrado savanna — sometimes called an "inverted forest" for its extensive underground root network, which stores substantial carbon and water even though the visible vegetation appears sparse compared to the neighboring Amazon rainforest.
Grassland loss attracts far less media and conservation funding attention than deforestation, in part because converted grassland doesn't leave the same visually dramatic before/after satellite imagery that clearcut forest does. We consider this a significant blind spot given the scale of carbon and biodiversity at stake.
Global monitoring systems for grassland and savanna conversion are considerably less mature than equivalent forest-monitoring systems (such as Global Forest Watch), meaning current conversion estimates likely understate the true scale of loss in less-studied regions.