The Genius Solution to Rewild This River

We're planting one of the largest biodiversity corridors on Earth, right here in the heart of Brazil. It will stretch for thousands of kilometers along a single vital river, reconnecting habitats across a landscape that's been fractured by farmland. This is the Cerrado. You've probably never heard of this place. But without it, South America's entire ecological system would start to destabilize. And yet, it's disappearing faster than the Amazon. The plan? To restore an enormous, continuous chain of native forest here. If it succeeds, it will transform degraded farmland back into thriving habitat at a scale hardly ever seen before. That's why Ecosia and Planet Wild have teamed up to support the people turning this grand vision into reality. And transforming this into this. This is the world's most underrated ecosystem. It holds 5% of all plant and animal species. And you probably haven't even heard of it. This place is absolutely magical. Like, I don't even know where to look. I'm talking, of course, about the Cerrado. Oh, what was I about to say? Sorry, I got distracted by the fact that there's macaws that are just flying there. The Cerrado is the most biodiverse savanna on the planet. Sorry, Africa. It sits just beneath the Amazon. And it's where giant anteaters, maned wolves, rare birds, trees, and insects live side by side. Many of them found nowhere else on Earth. To be honest, it was even a bit hard for me to focus on doing my job. Whoa! Look at this! What is this guy? Everywhere I looked, there was something unique. Just look at this forest, for example. When you stand in front of it, you can feel this buzz in the air. It's truly a surreal experience. Oh my gosh, look at that. That's a jaguar's footprint. Can you see that there's three lobes? One, two, three on the pad? That's a cat. That's a jaguar. It's so wild. But the thing is, if you zoom out, you'll see that this forest is actually totally disconnected. It's basically an island in an ocean of farms. Look at this. It's all soybean. We've been driving for a while and there's a lot of soybean. In just the past 50 years, more than half of the Cerrado has been deforested. Putting that in perspective, that's twice the size of Germany. The rapid expansion of soy production has placed enormous pressure on the Cerrado and its biodiversity. And while the world has been focused on protecting the Amazon, much of that deforestation simply relocated south to the Cerrado, where legal protections are weaker. But blaming the farmers would be short-sighted. Because we're dealing with a global issue of food demand by a growing population, putting enormous pressure on land use worldwide. With 80% of the soy being used as animal feed. And in fact, as we're about to learn, the farmers in the Cerrado are working harder than most to mitigate food production and biodiversity needs. Which is crucial, because without the Cerrado, the Amazon is at risk as well. And the biggest water system on the continent could collapse. Let me explain. In the Amazon, trees act like giant water pumps. They suck up water from the soil and breathe it out through their leaves, releasing around 20 trillion litres of water into the air every single day. This creates so-called flying rivers that drift across South America until they reach the Cerrado, where that water is released. And when it rains, it pours. But this is where the Cerrado does something extraordinary. Native plants here have extremely deep roots. These break up the soil, making it full of tiny holes and turns the savannah into a giant sponge. The sponge absorbs all that life-giving water, stores it in underground reservoirs, and slowly releases it into springs and rivers that flow back towards the Amazon, where the cycle starts again. But now, so much of the Cerrado is gone. And look at the difference. Native Cerrado plants can dig their roots 18 metres down, but the average soybean root is just 1 to 1.5 metres. Because of this, we can already see the warning signs that the water cycle is breaking down. If we don't do anything, and the farms continue to expand, both the Cerrado and the Amazon could eventually dry up. But there is a movement happening here that could transform the most degraded part of the Cerrado into a huge biodiversity corridor. Here's the plan. There is a law in Brazil that requires every rural landowner to protect and restore native vegetation on a percentage of their land. Where we are, in the Cerrado, it's 35%. In the Amazon, 80%. Sounds great, right? Well, here's the thing. Firstly, it's not well enforced. But also, most farmers are not restoration experts. And for many, it's easier to just pay the fines than to take the time and effort to comply with the law. Unless there's somebody there to help them. This is Laís from the Black Jaguar Foundation. They partner with farmers to restore degraded parts of their land. And piece by piece, the vision comes to life. Their ultimate plan is to connect all of these restored patches of land, creating a 1 million hectare continuous chain, stretching for 2,600 kilometers along one vital river. What we're doing here and in other farms is seeing these patches of forest that we still have and trying to connect them with our restoration sites. So bringing this connectivity, that's why we call it the corridor. Laís is an agricultural engineer who left her life in Sao Paulo to dedicate herself to this mission. She now works at the center of it all, connecting farmers and local communities with the restoration effort. If successful, this will be one of the biggest reforestation projects the world has ever seen. And there's two genius things about this plan. But first, for this project, Ecosia teamed up with Planet Wild. They're restoring nature through monthly missions that are community-funded by people just like you. If you don't know them yet, definitely check out their channel, where they've also posted this video. Okay, where were we? Genius thing number one. This whole chain is being created along one river, the Araguaia. This not only gives us a natural corridor to follow that connects the Cerrado and the Amazon, but focusing the restoration around a river helps the groundwater and biodiversity to recover much faster than it normally would. Genius thing number two. On farms, the best soils get the crops. And historically degraded land like this is often used for pasture. Now, this is kind of perfect for the Black Jaguar Foundation because it means they don't take away productive crops from farmers. And the farmers are now complying with the law. It's a win-win situation. So now that we have the farmers on board, it's time to get to work. And it all starts with this. Step one. With a network of 120 seed collectors and counting, we gather hundreds of thousands of seeds from more than 80 different native tree species. Step two. We bring those seeds here to the heart of Black Jaguar's operation. This is the nursery. With such a big vision, you need a lot of trees. Now we have the potential to have at least half a million seedlings per year. Whoa, how long is this root? This little seedling is two months old and already it's so much longer than this grass. This is going to make its way down into the ground. So when rain comes, it follows these channels. And the further and further down it goes, it starts to fill aquifers. And those aquifers start to feed the rivers. This is what we need in the Cerrado. This is the Cerrado. Step three. Once the seedlings are ready, it's go time. Tiny trees are now planted into degraded pasture. The Planet Wild community, together with Ecosia, is supporting the restoration of 30 hectares of degraded land. Plus, three full years of monitoring to track how the Cerrado and the wildlife comes back. So places that looked like this, will soon look like this. And the crazy thing is, that wildlife cameras at these restoration sites show us clearly that the plan is working and incredible wildlife is already coming back along this corridor. Black Jaguar Foundation has planted at least two million trees already. Putting the trees on the ground is actually like the end of at least a year of work. So it feels nice to see that the trees actually grow and they are farming a forest. And it's not just benefiting nature. It's changing lives too. The project is creating meaningful work for local communities. From seed collectors, to nursery staff, to tree planters. For many, it's a step into stable income after being excluded from the formal job market. So as the forest begins to grow back, so does the community. You can help with this project for free, and many others like it, just by switching to Ecosia. Ecosia is the search engine that uses 100% of its profits for the planet. It only takes about 30 seconds to get started. And every search helps grow real trees where they're needed most. So thanks so much for searching and making a difference. Hope you enjoyed the video. See you next time.