This area is the joint initiative of the Associação Quilombo Kalunga and the municipality of Cavalcante in Brazil.

The Cavalcante town is intertwined with the Quilombo and the present mayor is from the Kalunga community. The Kalunga community started with runaway enslaved people who were trafficked to the Americas in the Atlantic Slave Trade. They have lived in the area for the last 300 years and have secured legal rights to their land. People have traditional livelihoods, making their living from native plants as well as planting cash crops and raising livestock. There are few economic opportunities, mostly around ecotourism, micro enterprising, and agricultural products trading.

The native tropical savannah, the Cerrado, is the second largest Brazilian biome and one of the regions with the greatest biodiversity in the world. The Cerrado has the third most diverse fauna after the Amazon and the Atlantic Rainforest. Its fauna is mostly endemic, with more than 1,200 fish species, 864 birds, 390 amphibians and reptiles, 199 mammals, and 25,000 insect species. Around 12,000 plant species grow in the Cerrado, many are used as food or medicine.

The Cerrado biome has hundreds of springs and beautiful waterfalls in mountainous forest. The biome is known as ‘Brazil’s water tank’ because its water springs feed into Brazil's major basins. 9/10 of Brazilians use electricity that is produced by Cerrado waters.

This unique biodiversity and natural resource is threatened by fragmentation and degradation. Slash and burn agriculture, where farmers set fire to their land to clear it and quickly grow their crops, can spread into large forest fires. Riverine forests are also cleared by ranchers for their cattle to have access to water. Without forest cover surrounding these rivers and springs, the water dries up, leaving less water that flows into the streams. Local communities have limited access to water, forcing them to leave their historic land. At this accelerated rate of forest loss, it is estimated that the Cerrado could collapse in 30 years.