In the southeastern portion of Chapada Diamantina, a territory of resistance known as Serra da Chapadinha has revealed 15 previously undocumented cavities in Brazil, registered by the São Paulo-based collectives Environmental Conservation Institute of Morro Agudo (ICAMA) and Laje Seca Speleology Group (GELS). Beneath the surface lies a subterranean heritage untouched by science, with undeniable potential — yet under daily threat.

IMAGE 1 – EDSON SARTI, FOUNDER OF ICAMA, AFTER RECORDING A NEW CAVITY

Real estate speculation, deforestation, land grabbing, and especially the nearly 15,000 hectares authorized for mineral prospecting clash with springs, waterfalls over 200 meters high, rock paintings etched into fragile sandstone monuments, and previously unknown arenitic caves hidden within 300-meter-high cliff faces — in addition to forming one of the main groundwater recharge zones for the capital city of Salvador.

IMAGE 2 – ENCANTADA WATERFALL

In just two days of expedition, 15 new cavities were discovered, including Xangô Cave, the only one fully mapped so far, extending over 110 meters underground. It shelters crustaceans, insects, mammals, reptiles, and speleothems that urgently require descriptive scientific studies. The Pedra Rolada Cave area, with its unstable rock formations and potential for over 100 meters of development, along with the nearby Rolada Abyss — showing negative-relief features similar to other sinkholes and possibly harboring archaeological material — also stand out as significant discoveries.

IMAGE 3 – TEAM DURING PROSPECTION

All the cavities have been officially registered in the national speleological databases, bringing to light complex systems of shelters, abysses, and hollows of global ecological and anthropological significance. Ironically, it is through the darkness of the underground that the existence of so many other cavities is revealed — precisely in areas now under threat from mining, which, before anything else, must be studied. These formations play an essential role in water regulation, species conservation, and the safeguarding of geological and historical heritage.

IMAGE 4 – ROCK PAINTINGS AT PEDRA DO CABOCLO, NEAR THE CAVITIES

The creation of a conservation unit, as advocated by the movement “Save Serra da Chapadinha”, is not a luxury — it is urgent. Discovering 15 caves in just two days makes us question how much remains undiscovered. But science needs time. Nature needs time. And both are being stolen by the pressure of a state still ruled by coronelismo — a deeply rooted, authoritarian model of local power in Brazil that survives behind progressive rhetoric but continues to foster destruction in practice.
If the spring runs dry, the history collapses, and the ecology suffers — who will pay the price of thirst? How much is the anguish of a deteriorating world worth?

IMAGE 5 – XANGÔ CAVE