(CNN) The Amazon blazes have captured the attention of the world and its leaders, and for good reason -- the destruction of one of the world's major carbon stores could strike a devastating blow to the fight against climate change, and to the homes and livelihoods of indigenous communities.

But just miles away, another part of Brazil, home to 5% of the planet's plants and animals, and a carbon store of its own, is being destroyed at a faster rate.

Brazil's Cerrado -- a "mosaic" habitat made up of savannah, grassland and forest -- is the world's most biodiverse such region, and spans around 200 million hectares.

"It is estimated that the biome has 837 species of birds, 120 of reptiles, 150 of amphibians, 1,200 thousand fish, 90,000 insects, 199 types of mammals," Mercedes Bustamante, a biologist at the University of Brasilia told CNN.

Native Cerrado is being cleared to make way for agriculture.

More than 4,800 species are endemic -- including giant otters, tapirs and jaguars -- and of more than 11,000 plant species found in the Cerrado, nearly half are found nowhere else on earth, according to the World Wildlife Foundation.

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