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

animal and plant life.

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

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

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

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

of the Amazon.

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

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

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

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

actually lives in this area?

GEORGE GEORGIADIS: Yes.

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

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

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

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

jaguars, and hundreds
of species of birds.

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

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

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

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

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

Things are going fast.

AMNA NAWAZ: How long do we have?

What do you think?

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

We're just picking
up the pieces.

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

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

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

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

we could understand how
important this place is.

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

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

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

SILVANA CAMPELLO: We have
placed a camera trap.

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

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

live and interact
with each other.

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

in science.

AMNA NAWAZ: Really?

SILVANA CAMPELLO: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Among the otters?

SILVANA CAMPELLO:
Among the otters.

AMNA NAWAZ: Like what?

SILVANA CAMPELLO: Like,
for example, den sharing.

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

and another group will
come and use the same den.

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

den.

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

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

(LAUGHTER)

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

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

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

and amphibians call
this area home.

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

That's plants, and
insects, and animals.

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

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

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

live here, but for
humans as well.

SILVANA CAMPELLO:
It's the card effect.

People say that nature
is like a house of cards.

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

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

a role.

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

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

is in the Amazon.

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

to and studying the
Amazon since the 1960s.

THOMAS LOVEJOY: The Amazon
actually makes this planet work.

It affects the climate.

It affects the
hydrological cycles.

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

histories that go back
four billion years.

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

different fronts.

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

infrastructure projects,
mining and agriculture.

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

original inhabitants.

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

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

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

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

We must care now,
before they go.

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

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

facility in Canarana, Brazil.

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

with.

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

be spread over burnt
or deforested land.

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

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

is because they have been here.

It is their call.

They are holders of the
knowledge of these species.

They know what will
germinate well.

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

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

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

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

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

plants and trees.

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

of trees.

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

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

below the Xingu
and Amazon rivers.

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

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

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

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

We live in the savanna.

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

other foods from our culture.

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

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

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

more of their land.

Goldoni owns a cattle
ranch outside of Canarana.

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

Network to work on his property.

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

of human beings
who need to be fed.

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

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

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

You have conceded that it
will mostly be destroyed?

GEORGE GEORGIADIS: It
will mostly be destroyed.

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

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

It's like the barbarians
are burning the library.

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

That's what you can save.

You have got to be
optimistic and do it.

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

even save those two books.

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

So you have to have
a different attitude.

AMNA NAWAZ: But Georgia
and Silvana hope a
different attitude will
also help save areas

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

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

them with, like,
a sense of wonder.

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

SILVANA CAMPELLO:
Oh, definitely.

It's like talking about
somebody you love.

You never lose your
enthusiasm when there is love.

AMNA NAWAZ: Even all
these years later?

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

(LAUGHTER)

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