Filmed near Alto Paraiso in Brazil's Goias state,
about 200 km northeast of Brasilia, our team wandered
across massive waterfalls, rugged hills, and low
scrubby forests filled with toucans and lizards for
two days. Cerrado is the Portuguese word for
the massive tropical savannah of Brazil — a
massive grassland where fire is common, and the
seasons are marked by a wet summer and dry winter.
The cerrado contains about 30 percent of the
biodiversity of all of Brazil, rivaling the Amazon in
its ecological importance. But the cerrado
is not well known or appreciated, even within Brazil.
Here we talk about the importance of the
cerrado globally and to the rivers of the
rest of Brazil, the effects of such strong rain
seasonality on animals and plants in the
cerrado, the special types of water
resources found here, and the threats the
cerrado is facing from development, climate
change, and other factors. Filmed in August 2009.
Many thanks to my colleagues from WWF who helped with
the content: Bart Wickel (WWF-US), Glauco Kimura de
Freitas (WWF-Brazil), and Samuel Barreto
(WWF-Brazil). Samuel and Glauco were especially kind
in taking Bart and myself to such a beautiful part of
the cerrado and lending us their expertise in the
region.