The Caatinga was by far the most misinterpreted biome of Brazil. Judged by its natural semi-arid characteristics, once it was thought to be a place of scarcity in all aspects, both in fauna and flora. Vidas Secas, one of the most famous national literary works, written by Graciliano Ramos in 1938 tells the miserable life story of a family located in part of the Caatinga known as sertão nordestino. In the book, the characters are depicted as living a harsh and impoverished existence in the arid sertão of northeastern Brazil. Their struggle for survival is marked by constant hunger, thirst, and the relentless heat. And their only way to survive is to move regularly to areas less affected by drought. For a long time, the reality of Vidas Secas was the image that Brazilians held of this natural environment.

Though it is hard to pinpoint exactly when our perspective about the Caatinga started to shift, a brief search on the Web of Science portal reveals how recent is the research interest in this biome. Using its advanced search tool, the query ALL= (caatinga) searches among all of the searchable fields in papers and results in a total of 5904 scientific articles, from 1960 to the present. However, it was only in 2009 that papers containing the subject grew above two digits with an impressive difference of 155 papers between 2008 and 2009. The same search applied to the Amazon ( query : (ALL= (amazon and brazil) ) found 27346 articles starting in 1902, and with a significant increase starting in 1995.

With time the Caatinga, the only biome exclusively found in Brazil, was found to be a complex and diverse environment. Contrary to the perception of it being a homogeneous landscape with little life and diversity, research revealed that the Caatinga holds unique characteristics, dynamics and species [1].

Environmental variations may occur over small geographical distances in the Caatinga. This phenomenon is responsible for the formation of micro-habitats with different floristic compositions. Topography is a physical variable that is extremely influential in such environmental heterogeneity, as it can alter the dynamics of rainfall distribution and intensity. As a consequence, precipitation levels also vary. However, whereas in Europe we observe a decrease of species with the increase of altitude levels, in this biome this variable plays the opposite effect. Studies say that at altitudes above 750 m, there is greater vegetation heterogeneity in Caatinga fragments with large plants [2]. 

On the other side, in the lowest dry landscapes, the thin and thick vegetation is highly adapted to its semi-arid climate. In periods of drought, many plants lose their foliage, giving the landscape a white appearance, which gave it its name from the Tupi-Guarani language which means “white forest”. However, with a little rain, the landscape quickly turns green all over as plants germinate and flower.

When it comes to fauna, the Caatinga is all the same diverse and unique, composed of approximately 1,307 animal species, of which 327 are exclusive to the biome – as of 2020. Many of these animals have adapted to the harsh climatic conditions of the Caatinga in various ways, such as hiding from the sun during the day, migrating during periods of intense drought, or developing more resistant armor to prevent water loss. However, those who rely on migration to ensure their survival face additional challenges: wind farms, roads and other anthropogenic disturbances to the landscape [3].

The northeast of the country is an ideal place for wind towers. However, as shown by the journalist Suzana Camargo [3] in an interview with researchers from the Environmental Protected Areas Boqueirão da Onça in Bahia the big cats – already on the verge of extinction- need to expend a much bigger amount of energy to reach water points to take alternative routes. Although Science has demonstrated the incredible amount of life and diversity of this biome, the Caatinga still carries a bad reputation and it is not in the media as the other biomes, which does not help in the improvement it most needs: public policies of protection.