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After departing Plymouth, UK in August, the Dutch ship Oosterschelde has arrived in Rio de Janeiro.
It's on a two-year mission to work with future scientists who will study species discovered by Charles Darwin and develop projects to save them.
Onboard, the crew of seven sailors is readying the tall ship for the next stage of its trip - retracing the voyage taken by a young Charles Darwin aboard the H-M-S Beagle that passed around South America and went to Australia and New Zealand.
Rhodri Hall is a Darwin200 participant.
“The idea is that we travel around the world to the ports that Charles Darwin visited and we work with local conservationists and we share their stories, so these are the guys doing the work, doing real work to actually help the environment, help endangered species.”
Young naturalists and conservationists are exploring a remaining patch of the Atlantic Forest in Rio de Janeiro state.
The Atlantic Forest has been decimated by deforestation over centuries, but thanks to international efforts, the number of golden lion tamarin monkeys has rebounded from as little as 200 individuals.
With fewer than 5,000 monkeys, it's still considered an endangered species.
In Brazil, the animal became a symbol for wildlife preservation.
Ms Karen Brewer-Carías is a Darwin200 participant.
She is hoping to take this experience back to her native Venezuela.
“I was very surprised and very emotional, I even cried, because this animal isn't even supposed to exist, it would not have survived the extinction process it was going into head-on, and thanks to these people and their great effort, we are able to see it in its natural state.”
Primatologist Jane Goodall is one of the patrons of the Darwin200 expedition and she makes a virtual appearance during the project's visit.
Also applauding young naturalists efforts is botanist Sarah Darwin, the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin.
Always with a copy of 'On The Origin of Species' in hand, Ms Darwin speaks passionately about her famous ancestor's presence in these lands.
“The Atlantic Rainforest, for me, is particularly special because I think it was probably Darwin's most enduring experience of his five-year voyage. You could say that South America was really everything to Darwin, but I think the Atlantic Forest was particularly important. I think he had a very emotional experience when he was in the forest. I think he felt it touched his soul, let's say, the experience of walking in the Mata Atlantica Forest.”
For three mornings, the Darwin project's young participants kneel under the scorching sun, planting a green corridor that will be a future safe passageway for the golden lion tamarin.
The 300 tree seedlings they plant — only centimetres tall at present — will eventually connect two patches of forest together.
Until recently, the bare and dry land they are replanting belonged to a ranch owner who had torn down its trees for cattle pasture.
Jessica Tax is a young participant from the Netherlands.
“The planting of the trees is very important, to increase the connectivity of the area and I'm currently working on a Darwin200 project to investigate the fragmentation and the importance of connectivity and the consequences of fragmentation in this area.”
John McKinley is CEO of Carbon Capture Solutions, one of the sponsors of the project.
“We've got everybody here who's providing free labour to re-establish their own community in their own environment, we need to help that. So, I want to see this turning into hundreds of acres, thousands of acres.”.
AMLD has been purchasing land from farmers and cattle ranch owners to reforest, one patch at a time.
They bought a first parcel of 137 hectares in 2018, and another of 180 hectares in November.
Luís Paulo Ferraz, executive director of the Golden Lion Tamarin Association, says monkeys are too scared to cross the few hundred metres of bare land that sometimes separate two isles of green vegetation, fearing they might become prey of larger predators, such as big cats.
Hence the need for so-called "green corridors".
“We have endeavoured to form corridors between forest fragments to allow for the circulation of animals and increase the genetic diversity of those populations, because if they remain in isolated fragments there is inbreeding, which compromises the health of those groups in the long-run.”
The process is slow and expensive, as it requires heavy and regular maintenance, especially in the first few years.
But it is rewarding.
On the ground, the bare hills bought by AMLD in 2018 are now vibrant and green.
They are covered with a healthy forest and inhabited by many animal species that they can track thanks to night vision cameras.
The Darwin200 project will soon set sail again, journeying to the Galapagos Islands where Darwin made some of his most important discoveries.
The boat will then go to Australia and New Zealand before returning to South America and then crossing the Atlantic again to South Africa before going back to England.
Stewart McPherson is the founder and leader of the Darwin200 project.
“We leave from Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday morning and head down to Punta del Este, to Uruguay, and start our next Darwin leader group down there to train more of tomorrow's leading conservationists.”
