In her 7th post from the front lines of Amazon deforestation, Rane Cortez witnesses a landmark moment for São Felix when indigenous groups join together with government agencies to achieve zero illegal deforestation.

In her 6th post from the frontlines of Amazon deforestation, Rane Cortez meets Wilton Batista, president of the Rancher’s Union in São Felix, to get the rancher’s perspective about stopping illegal deforestation in the Amazon.

In her 5th post from the frontlines of Amazon deforestation, Rane Cortez meets the indigenous Kayapo people that came to São Felix to dance and share their culture, perspectives and the impacts of climate change.

In her 4th post from the frontlines of Amazon deforestation, Rane Cortez interviews the Environmental Secretary of São Felix do Xingu, a northern Brazilian municipality about the size of Austria, where work is underway to slow the illegal burning and clearing of forests.

When I think about chocolate, in addition to thinking about brownies, I think about saving rainforests and fighting carbon pollution. This week I sat down to talk with leaders of a local agricultural cooperative in São Felix do Xingu, here in the Brazilian Amazon, that helps its members plant cacao – the fruit that eventually becomes the delicious treat we all crave.

The Nature Conservancy’s Rane Cortez blogs about her visit to the Amazon frontier town of São Felix do Xingu. Over the next eight weeks she will share her perspectives about how accelerated economic growth and the need for environmental conservation are meeting in one of the most dynamic parts of the Amazon.

We spent three full days travelling to this place deep in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, and three more searching: slashing though thick tangles of vines, braving legions of biting ants, and wading waist-deep through murky waters. The gold we’re searching for are the numbers that will help us determine the amount of carbon stored in the world’s rainforests.

In the short video at the top of this post, I provide a brief introduction to REDD+. Pay attention because there’s a quiz at the end! So tune in, and test your knowledge of this complex, but exciting, new idea. And, leave a comment on what you thought about the video below.

The other day I was trying to decide whether or not I should go sledding. While this may not sound like a momentous or difficult decision, please remember that it’s July and I live in the Amazon.

Our pilot program in the municipality of São Félix do Xingu will provide an example to the state of Pará and to Brazil for how to count the carbon that is stored in the trees, generate revenue through payments for reducing carbon pollution, and create participatory processes to direct that revenue to places where it will have the most impact. If we are successful, perhaps future generations will have a parade, like the bumba-meu-boi parade, that celebrates the story of a rancher’s prized tree — standing tall in the Amazon — that was once cut down but later restored.