WEBVTT

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JUDY WOODRUFF: South America's
Amazon rain forest is home
to a remarkable diversity of

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animal and plant life.

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But a record-breaking number
of forest fires and the already
ongoing cutting down of trees

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is putting many of the
rain forest's original
inhabitants at risk.

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With the support of the
Pulitzer Center, Amna Nawaz and
producer Mike Fritz traveled to

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Central Brazil to see the
efforts under way to save one
of the most pristine sections

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of the Amazon.

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It is the last part of our
series Brazil on the Brink.

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS, Instituto
Araguaia: So, all these tracks
are probably puma tracks.

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AMNA NAWAZ: In this corner
of the Amazon Basin in
Central Brazil, signs
of life are everywhere.

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AMNA NAWAZ: So, just by looking
at the tracks like this, you
have a better sense of what

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actually lives in this area?

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS: Yes.

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We get a sense of what lives
in this area, of what is more
abundant and what's rare.

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And then we start getting a
sense of, OK, which habitat
do we need to protect more of?

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AMNA NAWAZ: George Georgiadis is
a Brazilian scientist fighting
to protect everything that

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lives here, animals like giant
river otters, pink dolphins,
rarely seen jungle cats like

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jaguars, and hundreds
of species of birds.

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So their survival is dependent
on the survival of this area?

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS: Their
survival is dependent on
the survival of this area.

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AMNA NAWAZ: But climate change
and the steady destruction of
the Amazon's rain forest and

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the surrounding savanna,
known as the Cerrado,
has made George's mission
all the more dire.

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS: We have
lost probably half the natural
habitat of this area since 2013.

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Things are going fast.

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AMNA NAWAZ: How long do we have?

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What do you think?

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS: Oh,
it's already past time.

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We're just picking
up the pieces.

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AMNA NAWAZ: To save what they
could, George and his wife,
Silvana Campello, helped the

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Brazilian state of Tocantins
create Cantao State
Park in 1998, a nearly
350-square-mile-stretch

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of pristine forest and
grasslands nestled between the
Araguaia and Coconut rivers.

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SILVANA CAMPELLO, Instituto
Araguaia: We fell in
love for this place,
because, as biologists,

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we could understand how
important this place is.

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AMNA NAWAZ: The couple
houses visiting researchers,
who run long-term studies
and use motion-activated

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cameras to better understand
what animals actually live here
and what they need to survive.

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Some, like the giant otters,
have even been saved from
the brink of extinction.

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: We have
placed a camera trap.

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So we're going to go there and
check the camera trap and see
if there has been any activity.

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AMNA NAWAZ: And tracking them,
Silvana says, has led to new
discoveries about the way they

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live and interact
with each other.

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: We
have been finding also
interesting behavior
that hasn't been reported

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in science.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Really?

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: Yes.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Among the otters?

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SILVANA CAMPELLO:
Among the otters.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Like what?

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: Like,
for example, den sharing.

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A certain group of otters will
occupy a den for couple of
weeks, and then they will leave,

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and another group will
come and use the same den.

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And then the group will leave,
and the former owners would
come back and live in that same

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den.

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AMNA NAWAZ: It's like an
Airbnb for giant otters.

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: It's like
an Airbnb for giant otters.

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(LAUGHTER)

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AMNA NAWAZ: For all the focus
on the threats to the Amazon
rain forest, Silvana says it's

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the animals that are the
best bioindicator of a
changing environment.

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Millions of insects,
thousands of known plants,
fish and birds and hundreds
of mammals, reptiles

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and amphibians call
this area home.

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You know, one out of every 10
known species in the entire
planet lives in the Amazon.

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That's plants, and
insects, and animals.

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Scientists say new ones
are actually discovered
all the time, which is
why they say they're

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worried that, for every acre
lost, an entire species could
disappear right along with it.

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That's why Silvana says it's
crucial to not only protect
this area for the animals that

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live here, but for
humans as well.

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SILVANA CAMPELLO:
It's the card effect.

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People say that nature
is like a house of cards.

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If we start losing species,
it's like removing a card
from the house of cards.

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Eventually, there will be a
point when the planet will
collapse, because everybody has

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a role.

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Everybody's here for a
purpose, the purpose meaning
the balance of the planet.

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THOMAS LOVEJOY, Ecologist: The
single greatest repository of
the variety of life on Earth

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is in the Amazon.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Thomas Lovejoy is
an ecologist at George Mason
University who's been coming

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to and studying the
Amazon since the 1960s.

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THOMAS LOVEJOY: The Amazon
actually makes this planet work.

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It affects the climate.

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It affects the
hydrological cycles.

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And all these species that,
added up, become biological
diversity, all have evolutionary

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histories that go back
four billion years.

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AMNA NAWAZ: But the Amazon's
incredibly rich biodiversity is
now under assault from several

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different fronts.

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Nearly 20 percent of it has
been deforested since the 1970s,
cleared out to make way for

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infrastructure projects,
mining and agriculture.

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That destruction is having
a devastating impact on
the ecosystem, and many
of the rain forest's

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original inhabitants.

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It's estimated that hundreds
of species in Brazil are now
facing the threat of extinction.

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: As we
lose species, the next
generation will not miss them.

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But if you show them, if you
bring people to see giant
otters, for example, here, or

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pink dolphins, if they
see them, if they relate
to them, they care now.

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We must care now,
before they go.

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AMNA NAWAZ: But the
monumental effort to
repopulate and regrow what
has already been lost in the

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Amazon is slowly beginning,
and some of the solutions might
be found in this small storage

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facility in Canarana, Brazil.

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MAN (through translator): The
muvuca comes from 60 to 120
species of seeds that we work

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with.

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AMNA NAWAZ: It's called muvuca,
a planting technique that
uses native forest seeds to

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be spread over burnt
or deforested land.

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The method was developed
with input from the
Xingu indigenous tribe.

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BRUNA FERREIRA, Xingu Seed
Network (through translator):
The importance of involving them

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is because they have been here.

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It is their call.

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They are holders of the
knowledge of these species.

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They know what will
germinate well.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Bruna Ferreira is
the manager of the Xingu Seed
Network, a cooperative between

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indigenous communities,
local farmers and NGOs
that started in 2007.

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BRUNA FERREIRA (through
translator): This
is the job of ants.

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But the seed network is the
largest network in Brazil, and
nobody does work like this.

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AMNA NAWAZ: The hope is that
the forest will slowly regrow
with stronger, more durable

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plants and trees.

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It's all part of a larger effort
using native seeds that aims
to eventually plant millions

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of trees.

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BRUNA FERREIRA (through
translator): Today, there are
600 collectors of native seeds.

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And the network helped to
recuperate and restore more than
5,000 hectares of degraded areas

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below the Xingu
and Amazon rivers.

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AMNA NAWAZ: For some Xingu
tribal members, like Abeldo
Xavante, a 21-year-old who now

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works for the Seed
Network, regrowing the
forest is essential to
preserving the past.

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ABELDO XAVANTE, Xingu Tribal
Member (through translator):
We came from the forest, and,

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today, nobody else from my
tribe lives in the forest.

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We live in the savanna.

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And young people do not know
the seeds, and they no longer
want to eat forest fruits and

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other foods from our culture.

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They want white man's
food, sweets and sodas.

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So we must rebuild the forest,
so that we can live there again.

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AMNA NAWAZ: There's also a push
to have local Brazilian farmers,
like Nedio Goldoni, conserve

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more of their land.

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Goldoni owns a cattle
ranch outside of Canarana.

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About 10 years ago, in order
to comply with deforestation
laws, he allowed the Xingu Seed

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Network to work on his property.

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NEDIO GOLDONI, Farmer (through
translator): We need to
produce, because you have a lot

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of human beings
who need to be fed.

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But, also, we have to preserve
what needs to be preserved.

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AMNA NAWAZ: Back in Cantao,
scientist George Georgiadis
says that, even with new efforts

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to stop deforestation,
pristine areas like this
will likely disappear.

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You have conceded that it
will mostly be destroyed?

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS: It
will mostly be destroyed.

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AMNA NAWAZ: So why even fight
to save what you can now?

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GEORGE GEORGIADIS: Because
you have to know the
limit of what you can do.

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It's like the barbarians
are burning the library.

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You can save a couple of books
and hide them under your shirt.

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That's what you can save.

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You have got to be
optimistic and do it.

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If you're like, but they're
burning the whole library,
what's the point, then you don't

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even save those two books.

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And then, in 1,000 years, when
people learn how to read again,
there's not going be anything.

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So you have to have
a different attitude.

08:34.766 --> 08:39.133 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70%
AMNA NAWAZ: But Georgia
and Silvana hope a
different attitude will
also help save areas

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like Cantao and the animals
that call this remarkable place
home for as long as possible.

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Silvana, you have been studying
these animals for years and
years, and you still talk about

08:49.233 --> 08:51.866 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
them with, like,
a sense of wonder.

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Does it still excite you to
come out and try to find them?

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SILVANA CAMPELLO:
Oh, definitely.

08:56.433 --> 08:59.733 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
It's like talking about
somebody you love.

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You never lose your
enthusiasm when there is love.

09:02.133 --> 09:04.000 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70%
AMNA NAWAZ: Even all
these years later?

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SILVANA CAMPELLO: All these
years later, and - - and more.

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(LAUGHTER)

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AMNA NAWAZ: For the "PBS
NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz
in Tocantins, Brazil.