Amazon Basin / Campaigns

The Madeira River is the Amazon's largest and most important tributary. Spanning about a quarter of the Brazilian Amazon, the Madeira Basin is a treasure trove of biodiversity, providing home to the spotted jaguar, giant otter, pink dolphin, and countless other endangered mammal species. The river teems with life – an estimated 750 fish species migrate some 4,500 km each year to spawn and feed in the nutrient-rich, muddy waters of the upper Madeira.

Background

The Xingu River flows from the tropical savanna of central Mato Grosso, Brazil northward to the Amazon for 1,979 km (1,230 miles). Some 14,000 indigenous people, from nine distinct ethnic groups, live along the Xingu. In 1989, an international mobilization, led by the Kayapó Indians, stopped state electric company Eletronorte´s plans to construct a six-dam complex on the Xingu and its tributary, the Iriri.

The Araguaia and Tocantins rivers flow from the central plateau northward to the southern channel of the Amazon just upstream from Belém. The Tocantins is an embanked river, with relatively clear water, while the Araguaia is a floodplain river, with a sinuous bed and muddy waters, due to its substantial sediment load. The two rivers converge at Marabá, Brazil.