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Great Rivers Partnership Great Rivers The Partnership The Great Rivers Mississippi Upper Lower Paraguay-Paraná Yangtze Zambezi River Science Press Releases |
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The World's Largest Wetland Brazilians have a saying: “O Pantanal é vida.” It means, “The Pantanal is life.” That saying holds true today. Ten times the size of the Florida Everglades, the 36.5-million-acre Pantanal is an immense, landlocked river delta with annual floodwaters that give birth to a symphony of life. It is home to the greatest concentration of fauna in the Americas. “People outside Brazil know only the Amazon. … It’s a shame because the Pantanal is a very important ecological place,” said Dr. Maria Tereza Jorge Pádua, former director of Brazil’s National Parks. As waters recede for the dry season, great influxes of birds and other animals descend, as do the legendary pantaneiro, ranchers who have used an open-range method to raise cattle on this floodplain for centuries, which has helped maintain the region’s ecological integrity. For this reason, the Pantanal is an inspiration to the Great Rivers Partnership, as it offers the world a relatively pristine example of a great river system. |
Sunrise over the wetlands of the Pantanal. © The Nature Conservancy.
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