SERRO, Minas Gerais — Nature has always been intrinsic to life in Queimadas, a quilombo community located in an environmental buffer zone where the Cerrado and the Atlantic forest meet.

Part of a region considered the “water tank of Brazil,” where the Jequitinhonha, the Doce, and the São Francisco rivers meet, the municipality of Serro is part of the Pico do Itambé State ...