In addition to agriculture and cattle ranching, pressures include forest fires, land grabbing, timber extraction, road construction, hydropower and mining projects. Together with forest fires, these activities pose a serious threat to species and ecosystems. The Cerrado has been losing original vegetation cover at a faster rate than all other biomes and it has suffered a vegetation loss amounting to an area roughly the size of Egypt. It is one of the richest xeric shrub lands in the world and the only biome exclusive to Brazil.