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It's called the Cerrado, Portuguese for "closed," and for nearly all of human history this vast tropical savanna in central Brazil seems to have been shut off from the rest of the world.
此地名為塞拉多，即葡萄牙語的“閉塞”一詞，而在幾乎占到人類歷史全長的歲月里，巴西中部這片廣大的熱帶稀樹草原似乎真與世界其他部分隔絕開來。
People do live there; hunter-gatherer groups, overcoming the formidable wilds, have roamed the Cerrado since the Stone Age.
居民卻也是有的；狩獵-采集部落自石器時(shí)代就在塞拉多地區(qū)游走，克服嚴(yán)峻的蠻荒環(huán)境而求存。
And in colonial times, those escaping slavery often disappeared behind the hills, where they built tight-knit communities, unlocked the land's subtle gifts, and settled in. Otherwise, across centuries, hardly anyone ventured inside.
在歐洲人殖民時(shí)代，逃離奴役的原住民常常避走于深山密林，到這里結(jié)成緊密守望的村社，開鑿?fù)恋氐碾[秘物產(chǎn)，定居下來。除此之外，千百年來幾乎再?zèng)]有人冒險(xiǎn)走進(jìn)塞拉多。
The terrain was repellent to visitors, practically impossible to traverse.
這個(gè)地帶堪稱生人勿近，幾乎是不可能穿越的。
Much of the Cerrado is a dense, tangled mess of stunted trees and shrubs, the whole place crawling with snakes.
塞拉多的大片領(lǐng)地是幽密交纏的矮樹和灌木，蛇蟲遍地。
It pales in lushness to the mighty Amazon rainforest to the north, the green lungs of the Earth.
論繁茂，它遠(yuǎn)不及北邊遮天蔽日的地球之肺--亞馬孫雨林。
Even some scientists who study the Cerrado call it ugly; the common term for its scrubland is -- "dirty field."
就連有些把塞拉多當(dāng)研究課題的科學(xué)家也稱之為丑陋，說起它的灌木叢，通用的叫法為“腌臜地”。
But the main reason the Cerrado was ignored beyond Indigenous peoples and those seeking refuge is that no one could find money in it -- no hardwoods, no diamonds, no oil.
但塞拉多不被土著族群和避難者以外的民眾看重的主要原因卻是：沒人能在這里找出生財(cái)之道。沒有硬木材，沒有鉆石，沒有石油。
The soil is highly acidic, deadly to most non-native plants, and during the six-month dry season the land is often ravaged by fire.
土壤酸度很高，令大多數(shù)非原生植物 品種無法存活，而長達(dá)六個(gè)月的旱季又常遭野火。
Until the mid-20th century, the Cerrado was dismissed by the capitalist world as a wasteland. Best to leave it closed and move on.
直到20世紀(jì)中期，塞拉多都是被資本主義世界蔑視的廢土，最好的對待方式就是置之不理，由得它繼續(xù)閉塞。
In the 1950s, Brazil found a use for it. The nation, leaping into the global economy, decided to construct a new capital city, a monument to Brazilian progress, in the center of the country.
20世紀(jì)50年代，巴西找到了塞拉多的一種用途。這個(gè)投身全球經(jīng)濟(jì)的國家，決定在國境中央建造一座新的首都，作為巴西發(fā)展的豐碑。
So a hunk of the Cerrado, smack in the middle, was cleared, and Brasília rose up.
于是剛好坐落于中部地區(qū)的塞拉多被掃清了一大塊，代之以拔地而起的巴西利亞。
Five million people now live there; only S?o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte are bigger.
如今有500萬人住在那里，城市規(guī)模在全國僅次于圣保羅、里約熱內(nèi)盧、貝洛奧里藏特。
Then, in the 1970s, came a more sweeping transformation.
接著來到1970年代，興起了一場波及范圍更大的土地改造。
Brazilian agricultural scientists working in a government lab cooked up a fertilizer, packed with lime, that modified the harsh Cerrado soil and enabled cash crops to grow.
供職于國家實(shí)驗(yàn)室的巴西農(nóng)學(xué)家開發(fā)出一種石灰含量很高的化肥，能調(diào)節(jié)嚴(yán)酷的塞拉多土壤環(huán)境，使經(jīng)濟(jì)作物得以生長。
Industrial watering systems could counteract the dry season, and fire brigades would snuff out the flames. The Cerrado was open for business.
工業(yè)灌溉系統(tǒng)可以應(yīng)付旱季，消防隊(duì)負(fù)責(zé)撲滅野火。塞拉多打開門做生意了。
Bulldozers and tractors rolled in, and thousands of square miles of scrubby Cerrado were scraped clean.
推土機(jī)和拖拉機(jī)隆隆跟進(jìn)，千百里塞拉多灌叢被鏟平。
Corn, sugarcane, and especially soybeans were planted, then trucked across the country to seaports.
種下玉米、甘蔗和重點(diǎn)扶植的大豆，收獲用卡車運(yùn)往國境另一邊的海港。
China, the United States, and Europe bought them up, and the land clearing intensified.
中國、美國和歐洲的買家反應(yīng)熱烈，清理土地的行動(dòng)繼續(xù)加劇。
The largest agricultural corporations in the world established massive factory farms there. The Brazilian economy roared.
全球頂級規(guī)模的農(nóng)產(chǎn)企業(yè)在塞拉多建起巨型工廠化養(yǎng)殖場，巴西經(jīng)濟(jì)高歌猛進(jìn)。
More land was churned up; there seemed no limit: The Cerrado's size is Texas times three.
新的土地不斷清出，似乎無有窮盡：塞拉多的面積是得克薩斯的三倍。
The area, according to a 2021 report from the World Bank, has "the greatest agricultural potential on the planet."
世界銀行2021年的一份報(bào)告稱，該地區(qū)擁有“地球上最巨大的農(nóng)業(yè)潛力”。
Along with government workers and farmhands, a new generation of biologists, many lured by the science department at the University of Brasília, also came to the Cerrado, curious about this relatively unknown region, always considered less worthy of study than the Amazon.
隨著政府職工和農(nóng)業(yè)人手進(jìn)駐塞拉多的還有新一代生物學(xué)家，其中許多是沖著巴西利亞大學(xué)的科研部門而來；他們對這片一向被認(rèn)為研究價(jià)值不如亞馬孫的陌生土地感到好奇。
Over the past two decades, scientific attention has focused on the area even as it has shifted toward becoming an ecological "sacrifice zone" -- what land-use experts call a place, lacking strong environmental protection, that caters to human consumption. And the Cerrado's great secrets have emerged.
因此，過去至今的20年里，即便塞拉多處在成為“生態(tài)犧牲區(qū)”（在土地用途劃分中優(yōu)先考慮人類消費(fèi)、缺少有力環(huán)境保護(hù)措施的區(qū)域）的轉(zhuǎn)變過程中，它受到的科研關(guān)注并不少，而其最大的秘密終于顯現(xiàn)。
Turning away most humans for millennia appears to have been an ideal strategy for preserving extraordinary biodiversity.
在數(shù)千年的時(shí)光里令絕大多數(shù)人類望而卻步，似乎成了保有超然生物多樣性的理想策略。
The Cerrado, researchers from the University of Brasília and elsewhere have tallied, is home to more than 11,000 species of plants and trees, 40 percent of which exist nowhere else.
巴西利亞大學(xué)和其他機(jī)構(gòu)的研究者在塞拉多清點(diǎn)出來的生物資源包括約1.1萬個(gè)植物物種（其中40%不見于任何其他地區(qū)）。
There are 800 bird species, 1,200 fish species, and 90,000 insect species.
這里也有800種鳥類、1200種魚和9萬種昆蟲。
The golden-furred, stilt-legged maned wolf prowls the Cerrado, as does the giant anteater, which grows up to seven feet long, not including its two-foot tongue.
稀有的走獸包括金 色皮毛、四肢細(xì)長如踩高蹺的鬃狼和能長到2米多長（這還沒算60厘米長舌）的大食蟻獸。
There are wide populations of bees, snakes, lizards, bats, and butterflies.
蜂類、蛇、 蜥蜴、蝙蝠、蝴蝶的種群極為壯大。
About 5 percent of Earth's animal and plant species are thought to live in the Cerrado, the biologically richest savanna in the world.
據(jù)估計(jì)，全球約5%的動(dòng)植物物種在塞拉多都有分布，它是世界上生物豐富性最高的草原。
