Brazil's Araucaria forests are unique, ancient, and threatened. Logging of the Araucaria trees (the garden monkey-puzzle's closest relative) in the 20th Century has driven them to the brink of extinction, but it wasn't always this way. In the southern highlands the Araucaria forests expanded rapidly around 1,000 years ago, but was climate change alone responsible, or did indigenous people help the forests grow? How can we find out? And what might this mean for the future of this critically endangered species?

I first gave this talk in the University of Reading Graduate School's 3-minute thesis competition, and, as the judges' winner, it was videoed for the national semifinals.