Cycling 200 Miles Across Brazil to Find a Vanishing Savanna
A Bicycle Journey Across Brazil to Find a Vanishing Savanna
Environmental historian Natascha Otoya pedaled over 200 miles through western Bahia and Tocantins in 2025 to document the Cerrado, the planet's most biodiverse savanna. More than half of this biome, once nearly 800,000 square miles, has been converted in 40 years to cattle pasture and soy and corn monocultures, mostly for export as animal feed. Her film, "Here There Was Cerrado," won second place in the 2026 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest.
The slower pace of the bicycle opens space for interactions with local people, which can unearth stories, leads, details, and perspectives that might otherwise have been missed.