A eucalyptus boom in Brazil’s biodiverse Cerrado savanna is drying up land and water springs, making subsistence farming more difficult, local authorities and farmers tell Mongabay.

Adilso Cruz, a 46-year-old rancher from the Alecrim settlement in Mato Grosso do Sul state, said the water shortages began around 2013, coinciding with the growth of eucalyptus plantations in the region, and have gotten worse since.

“Streams that used to run all year started flowing less, drying up, and then taking a long time to fill again,” Cruz told Mongabay by phone. “Grass is suffering because water is disappearing from the topsoil.

”I had 70 head of cattle. Now I have 42, and I’ll need to sell more,” he added. As farms sold their land to eucalyptus plantations, they also sold off their herds, causing cow prices to plummet. “I estimate about a 45% drop in income,” Cruz said.

A study led by Valticinez Santiago, the deputy environment secretary of Selvíria, a eucalyptus-heavy municipality, found that springs located 50 meters (164 feet) from plantations, the legal minimum, had either dried up or were severely degraded. Santiago told Mongabay that they used satellite imagery to map out 400 springs surrounded by eucalyptus farms and now recommend expanding the buffer to 500 m (1,640 ft) to better protect water sources.