978-1-4222-3341-2

The National Park of Canastra in Minas Gerais.

and when it does, wooden houses, all built on the trunks of felled trees, float on the river in a self-contained community. Here, students go to school and church by boat. They even play soccer on a floating field. Yet, Catalão, like other places in the Amazon, is under siege. Severe flooding, coupled with deforestation is impacting a way of life. Farmers, miners, and oth- ers are exploiting the Amazon for its gold mines, timber, fertile land, and other natural resources . Today, protecting the Amazon River and the surrounding region is a global concern. The Amazon is one of the planet’s most diverse eco- systems, a community of plants and animal life that functions as unit. While the Amazon might seem like Brazil’s only environmental treasure, it’s not. Brazil’s expansive savanna, in the central and eastern part of the country, teems with life, including more than 10,000 species of plants and more than 14,000 different types of insects. Mostly located in the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais, the savanna, or Cerrado, encompasses nearly 500 million acres, covering more than 20 percent of the country. Like the Amazon, the Cerrado is under tremendous pressure, especially from farming and urbanization.

54

MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL