The Cerrado is the most biodiverse savanna on Earth and the least protected major biome in Brazil, a vast wooded grassland whose trees are gnarled and fire-adapted and whose root systems descend so deep that the Cerrado is sometimes called an upside-down forest. Those roots recharge the aquifers that feed most of the major rivers of South America. It is, functionally, the water tank of the continent.
It is being destroyed faster than the Amazon and with far less attention, converted to soy and cattle at a rate that has already taken roughly half of it. Downhill and downstream lies the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, which floods and drains each year in a great pulse that concentrates wildlife, jaguars, caiman, capybara, and hyacinth macaws, in densities matched almost nowhere. The Pantanal depends entirely on the water the Cerrado sends it.
The organizations here fight the agricultural frontier in the Cerrado, protect the headwaters, and defend a Pantanal that has been burning in recent years on a scale never previously recorded.
Environmental Organizations in This Bioregion
16 organizations working across this landscape.
Associação Ambientalista Copaíba
Conserve and restore the Atlantic Forest of the Peixe and Camanducaia river basins.
Associação Comunitária Monte Azul
Monte Azul Community Association is a non-governmental organization guided by anthroposophical thinking, primarily focused on the holistic development of the hum...
Filha do Sol
Filha do Sol regenerates Nature with tropical communities.
Foundation for Amazon Sustainability - FAS
Contribute to the sustainable development of the Amazon by enhancing socio-economic benefits of standing forests and its biodiversity.
Instituto Ecomar
We turn marine pollution into innovating new products!
Instituto Terra
More than 26 years ago, Lélia Wanick and Sebastião Salgado had a dream: to bring a devastated land back to life. They turned this dream into reality.
Instituto Terra Luminous
Terra Luminous (ITL) is a socio-environmental institute, a Brazilian NGO dedicated to protect and regenerate the Atlantic Rainforest.
Iracambi Rainforest Research and Conservation Center
Iracambi restores the Atlantic Forest through ecological restoration, environmental education, research, and community engagement.
Movimento Refloresta
Creating a new generation of Amazon rainforest activists by connecting youth from all over the World with youth from the Amazon.
Outward Bound Brasil
Outward Bound Brasil develops resilient, ethical, and climate-conscious citizens through immersive outdoor education and real-world challenges in nature.
Sea Shepherd Brasil
Sea Shepherd is a non-profit marine conservation organization that engages in direct action campaigns to defend wildlife and to conserve and protect the ocean
SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation
To inspire society to protect the Atlantic Forest.