Expedition Cerrado
Date April 2025
Location Chapada dos Veadeiros / Brazil
Number of participants Limited
Format Curated, self-directed learning experience
Key words indigenous leadership | systemic investment | learning societies | regenerative models | bioregional value creation
About Expedition Cerrado
In April 2025, Cobra Canoa brings together Indigenous leaders, visionaries, educators, guardians, and conscious investors from around the world to embark on an epic journey through Chapada dos Veadeiros. This isn't just a trip—it's a call to action, an opportunity to listen deeply to Mother Nature and act with urgency.
Starting in Brasília and traveling to Alto Paraíso, Teresina, Cavalcante, and São Jorge, Expedition Cerrado dives into the heart of the Cerrado to discover how humanity can foster planetary well-being. Our mission is clear and bold:
Map & Mobilize Regenerative Ecosystems of this Bioregion. We connect with the roots of regenerative agriculture, traditional knowledge, local innovators, and sustainable practices. Together, we’ll identify key players and map the pathways to resilience within the Cerrado.
Empower Collaborative Transformation. Traditional communities and systemic investors join forces, each nation bringing unique projects to inspire and share. This is a shared platform for investments, resources, and network expansion for systemic impact.
Build Global Alliances for Peace & Regeneration. Imagine a world where traditional communities and the modern economy converge to forge regenerative, peaceful systems. Cobra Canoa unites allies to lead the way.
This journey is a powerful blend of self-directed learning, storytelling, and documentation of transformative projects. Expedition Cerrado is more than inspiration; it’s action, coalition-building, and a roadmap to a regenerative future. Are you ready to join us in a learning journey of hope, vision, and action for planetary well-being?
What is in it for you?
Create Impact Beyond Boundaries
Step outside traditional paths and dominant systems. Invest by leading into the future, leaving behind outdated paradigms.
Meet & Collaborate with Game Changers
Engage with a new wave of thought leaders and catalysts, and experience building exponential projects within Communities of Practice.
Enhance Your Influence
Elevate the impact of your foundation or group through an immersive experience alongside Indigenous leaders, traditional communities, systemic entrepreneurs, and visionary investors.
Engage Your Ecosystem
Learn to navigate social dynamics with skill, fostering collaboration and resilience within your territory.
Hop on our Canoa!
Itinery Expedition Cerrado
Brasília | Day 1
Opening Ceremony na Casa Bahsakewi'í of the Yepá Mahsã people.
Sensing the Cerrado Biome while learning about the importance of the region Chapada dos Veadeiros
Start of Journey to the Chapada dos Veadeiros and arriving at the Kalunga territory.
Cavalcante | Day 2
Sharing circle
Field Trip: Water Ceremony with healing ritual and Nature Quest of inner connection with nature and local community
Visit of a local Kalunga community and sharing event
Deep Reflection
Cavalcante | Day 3
Field Trip: Reflecting and deepening learning experience
Immersing into the territory
Study Trip: Visit of local initiatives and solutions
Market of local solutions. Get-together of local iniciatives and sharing of their vision of the region
Alto Paraíso | Day 4
Study Trip: Mapping and Connecting with local solutions
Track Earth Forest agriculture solutions (large scale)
Track Air Local Education Projects
Track Fire Cultural and community projects
São Jorge | Day 5
Field Trip: Nature quest: National Park of the Chapada dos Veadeiros and the importance of Kalunga community
Track regeneration: Immersion climatic Importance with ancestral guidance
Track preservation: local habits and success stories
Sharing circle
Alto ParaÍso | Day 6
Collective Activity: Impact challenge developed with the local community creating and nurturing immediate results.
Our objective is to use the collective intelligence and the power of the community in order to create on the spot solutions for local challenges. Long term vision is creating a regenerative, autonomous and circular model for the region.
BraSiLía| Day 7
Diving deep in your Personal Quest in breath-taking waterfall with the whole community
Circle Conversations: Mapping future pledges and discuss joint ventures
Closing Ceremony with Individual and collective pledges
Transfer to Brasília
Impact Camp (OptionaL)
After the Expedition Cerrado we plan to host an Impact Camp and Festival for Indigenous peoples and investors. Together we create a collaborative setting to work on concrete projects and systemic models together with partners and trusted allies.
The biome Cerrado. A Socio-Biodiversity hotspot for Mother Earth
Sitting just below the Amazon rainforest, Cerrado covers a total area of 2 million sq. km., taking up one fifth of Brazil’s expanse. This grassland biome, the size of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain put together, is the largest Savanna in South America, and the second largest type of vegetation, after the Amazonian rainforest. Right in the heart of the cerrado is the capital, Brasilia and the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in the state of Goiás, one of the Brazilian sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Why Preserving the Cerrado Matters
The Cerrado is home to 5% percent of the planet’s biodiversity. Species that rely on the savanna include jaguars, giant anteaters, maned wolves, anacondas, howler monkeys, armadillos, and capybaras, to name a few.
Each year, clearing in the Cerrado is responsible for an estimated 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to the annual emissions of 53 million cars.
Some of South America’s most important rivers originate in the Cerrado. Converting the Cerrado for crop and livestock production can decrease water flows, reduce rainfall, prolong droughts, and contribute to more frequent fires.
If the destruction of the Cerrado continues at current rates, about one-third of the remaining Cerrado’s vegetation could be cleared by 2050, leading to the extinction of up to 480 plant species by 2050.
More Information: https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/saving-the-cerrado-brazil-s-vital-savanna
Importance of the Cerrado
Cerrado, the largest Savanna in South America, is a grassland biome located just underneath the Amazon rainforest, and in between the Atlantic Forests.
With over 4,800 species of endemic plants and vertebrates, Cerrado is one of the largest biodiversity hotspots in the world.
The region’s biodiversity is an integral environmental resource for the survival, traditions and livelihood of the local communities.
More information: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/cerrado-biodiversity-hotspot.html
A social hotspot uniting traditional communities and modern refugees
Our destinations are shrouded in magic and mystery and are renowned for their incomparable landscapes and waterfalls, which attract visitors from all over the world who come looking for a mystical experience. The city of Alto Paraíso de Goiás is locally referred to as the “capital of the third millennium,” and sitting on a huge quartz plate.
Over 40 mystical, philosophical, and religious groups, which have settled in the region over the years, have turned the destination into a remarkable melting pot of cultures and beliefs, which include, among others, Catholic churches, Buddhist temples, and meditation centers.
Kalunga, a community created as a refuge by free slaves
The Kalunga territory is a region with innumerable riches and great natural beauty. It was first occupied some 300 years ago, when many men and women were forced to live as slaves, working in mining. Not accepting this situation, they fled and began to live in hiding in parts of the hills located between the municipalities of Cavalcante, Monte Alegre de Goiás and Teresina de Goiás, to the north of the Chapada dos Veadeiros microregion, some 507 kilometres from the capital of the State of Goiânia. There, they developed their communities.
In 1982, an anthropological report certified that the entire area was occupied by people with the same ancestors. This allowed for the subsequent expansion, recognition and demarcation of the territory, which is part of the Kalunga Historical Site and Cultural Heritage—SHPCK. Today, approximately 1,600 families live in the area of 261,999 hectares, distributed in 39 communities.
More information : https://www.iccaconsortium.org/index.php/2020/02/20/in-brazil-kalunga-community-first-self-recognized-icca/
Join the Crew.