A group of people followed the chief out of the village in a truck. After a few miles, the road started to soften and the truck's tires were worn flat, making it difficult to keep going. Afterwards, they got out of the car and lined up to walk in the muddy grass. The sparse trees in the savanna provide little shade, but the mission keeps them from the heat.
The chief's daughter Neusa said: "Because we love the plants and seeds here, we have not complained about trekking under the scorching sun for so long."
There are about 20,000 Xiavanti people in Brazil, most of them scattered in the Cerrado region. . Covering nearly half of the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, the area is dominated by grasslands with some slender trees. The climate here is drier than the northern Amazon, and the vegetation is sparser, but there are many flora and fauna not found elsewhere. Biologists say this is the world's most species-rich savanna, where 5% of the world's flora and fauna can be found.
But over the past 30 years, the state of Mato Grosso has gradually become the most deforested region in the world. Since 2000, about 12 percent of the Cerrado's forest land -- an area larger than Denmark -- has been cleared and turned into soybean, corn and cotton plantations. After President Jair Bolsonaro took office, he vigorously supported the development of corporate farms, resulting in accelerated destruction of the natural environment, especially virgin forests.
Everyone gathers fruit in the forest.
Seven years ago, the Ripa community joined a movement to help restore vegetation in the Cerrado by collecting and selling seeds, while increasing villagers' income. Villagers in the community regularly go out to collect seeds, and such long journeys have exercised their superb collection skills.
"With the seeds, we can replant the trees," explains Chief José Sumone. "That's why we collect wild seeds."
The campaign has yielded some results, and so far, the area has been reforested. About 29 square miles. But the irony is that the people and companies that buy the seeds are the ones who are responsible for the deforestation, and the government departments that push for afforestation are the ones who are responsible for the deforestation.
A rattlesnake stood in their way, and the chief drove it away with a stick, and they kept going. Approaching Mount Rocador, the terrain slowly rises. This mountain is a holy mountain in the heart of Xiawanti. At the foot of the mountain, the trees are starting to grow taller and denser, and the temperature is not as warm.
They stopped at the edge of a swamp in the mountains. The women spread out among the intricate streams, scooping up fruits the size of giant strawberries from the mud and placing them in baskets woven from palm-leaf fibers. This ripe, oval fruit falls from the bridge tree. Bridge trees, also called swamp palms, grow in swamps.
Xiawanti people like bridge fruit very much. The fruit has a scaly rind that peels off easily, and the pulp inside is refreshing to eat. Bridgfruit is commonly found in markets in tropical South America, where it is processed into juices, ice creams and jams.
However, the women of the Ripa community do not sell the fruit they gather, they only sell the seeds. The income from selling seeds is not much, and the whole community can only increase about 1,200 US dollars a year, but for everyone, in addition to the income from selling handicrafts and the meager government subsidies, this is also an extra income.
However, money is not the point. "Those outsiders are destroying the Cerrado, they don't understand nature," Neusa said. Collecting seeds can restore damaged forests.
During this collection, they also harvested many other fruits. A woman climbed the knotted trunk of Golden Spoon and shook the branches vigorously. Fruits that looked like yellow crabapples fell like rain. On the other side, other women pluck light-colored fruits the size of mangoes from the slender branches of S. They put all these fruits into the basket. By afternoon, everyone had collected nearly eight gallons of fruit.
After returning to the village, the women had to choose the fruit and dry the seeds.
The deforestation problems facing the Cerrado are common elsewhere. Brazil's relevant laws stipulate that landowners must retain the original state of part of their land as forest reserves, and the specific retention ratio will be determined according to the region and vegetation types. The state of Mato Grosso requires that 35% to 80% of the forest must be preserved.
Landowners who have been deforested illegally have to replant native tree species, which has created demand for the seeds of the bridge tree, golden spoon tree and stony split bean.
It is mainly large commercial farms that need to buy seeds. Forest law places great emphasis on the protection and restoration of riparian forests. Road construction and other public utility projects also need to rebuild the vegetation they destroy.
Ripa and 24 other indigenous communities in the state will sell the collected seeds to the Xingu Seed Alliance, Brazil's largest supplier of native tree seeds. The coalition was formed in 2007 by a group of Aboriginal and other residents to rebuild the riparian forests of the Xingu River Basin. The Xingu River is a tributary of the Amazon River. Xingu Seed Alliance is responsible for transporting the seeds and assisting in planting. Local farmers are involved in these activities, including some city dwellers.
Since its inception, the Xingu Seed Alliance has sold about 300 tons of seeds from 220 types of plants, including Peque seeds, which are about the size of walnuts, and horn seeds, which are smaller than rice grains. The vast majority of seeds are sold within the state of Mato Grosso.
The seedling base of Xingu Seed Alliance
The workers will sort and weigh the harvested seeds.
The rebuilt forest area is considerable, but since Mato Grosso is Brazil's largest food producer and the largest cattle state, the mere 29 square miles is far from offsetting the deforestation. The state saw 1,000 square miles of deforestation last year alone.
Xingu Seeds manager Bruna Ferreira admits that they, like Sisyphus, are accomplishing a seemingly hopeless task. However, Ferreira believes that their achievements should not be measured only by the area of trees planted, but more importantly, the work of protecting the forest has brought communities closer together.
Closed. Everyone followed the chief back to the village, and there was still a lot to do. Janella Peeve began picking the fruit she brought back, picking out the best for food, then cutting off the rotten parts.
After working with the husks of the fruit, Peeve set the seeds aside to dry. The buyer will mix various types of seeds and plant them by hand. Ten years later, when these seeds have grown, they will be comparable to virgin forests.
Neusa believes that restoring vegetation in the Cerrado is a mission and worthwhile. "If you really love the Cerrado, it will definitely pay you back," she said.
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