Neotropical Eco Foundation

We have heard a global clamor for quite a long time about the Amazon forest being devastated, as was the Atlantic forest, which started during the first years of the European presence on the continent. Not that the uproar is a negative point, it is somehow refreshing since the Amazon is vital for the climate balance both in Brazil and globally.

We have seen what has happened after the colonizers knocked down the Atlantic forest in Brazil which continued until the last decade of the 20'th century. The expansion of sugarcane created an almost desert like land in the northeast of Brazil, with soil salinization in parts where once forests existed. Rivers have disappeared and the dried out basins have formed a sterile land of what in the past was covered with life. Such will eventually happen to the Amazon, taking away the plants, trees, all kinds of life.

The Amazon forest is not only vital to the many animals, plants and insects that are endemic to the region, not to mention the humans that live there. It is immensely important for the health of the planet earth, and although it is almost totally ignored in the most important urban centers of the country, it should be a matter of concern for all people living in Brazil and the rest of the world.

Are we ready for "Certified Green" lumber?

There is a movement afoot to "solve" the deforestation problem in the tropical areas of the globe. The idea is to create a centralized certification process, at least in Europe, and to force the purchasers of tropical hardwoods to verify that the wood that they use is certified "green". Sounds like a good idea, and probably the US will jump on the bandwagon soon as well. But, we ask, will this resolve the problem?

We do not think so!

This idea, like so many well intentioned ones that are thought up in ivory towers, far from where the chain saw meets the tree, is not workable. It's just another conscience salving effort on the part of consumers to feel good about something that they WANT to do, even when they know that it is wrong. It is akin to the much touted "solution" to the illegal drug problem of spraying the coca or poppy fields with a chemical defoliant. Reducing supply has never eliminated demand, it just raises prices, and in the case of drugs makes the user go to even greater lengths to feed his habit.

Now, let's look at some of the drawbacks to the solutions for deforestation being proposed:

1. Maintaining "On Site" Inspections

Keeping inspectors in the field will cost a great deal of money. Local governments rarely can dispose of the amounts involved (even when they want to!). Inspectors require transportation: in most cases these areas are reachable only by water or seasonal roads, sometimes only by air! Boats, 4x4s and airplanes are, in most of the places of the world where tropical hardwood grows, very expensive toys for the rich, not work tools for relatively low level government employees.

Long before Europeans arrived in the Americas there was a large bird which foraged in the grassy marshlands and meadows, near the forests of the Alagoas and Pernambuco states of Brazil. The bird was beautiful, about the size of a small turkey. It had bluish black feathers with a big thick red beak. The feathers on the top of it's head formed a crest which was shown at times of fear or nervousness. The crest made it the king of the birds in that restricted forest area above the San Francisco river.

It was called Mitu by the native people in Brazil, today, we call it the Alagoas Curassow. It's call was short and low, almost like a cough, which made it hard to be heard and located. The bird was described by the German naturalist Georg Marcgraf in his book Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, published in Latin in 1648, the first important scientific work in Brazil. Marcgraf was brought to Brazil by Prince Mauritz von Nassau (1604-1679) who was Governor-general of the Dutch colony in Pernambuco. After being described by Marcgraf the Mitu Mitu seems to have dropped out of sight for about 300 years, putting in doubt the identification made by the scientist. In fact, the bird was probably hiding, since it is one of the most timid birds in the Brazilian fauna. In 1951 a Brazilian ornithologist, Olivério Pinto, rediscovered Mitu Mitu hiding in the forests of Alagoas.

(Click on the photos to enlarge)

Brazil, already in the midst of the soybean cycle, is regressing back to the colonial sugarcane cycle, showing the behavior of a compulsion to be the country of the future as described by Stefan Zweig in his 1942 book. Brazil is bringing back one of its original and damaging colonial extractive cycles, the sugarcane plantation, which devastated the most important forest on the continent, taking away species that will never be seen again, plants that may well not be used again. Looking at the economic aspect, a few "families" are again to be benefited with the profits of exports, forgetting the large majority of the population which was kept marginalized, exploited and under employed.

The legacy of sugarcane is the extermination of 95% of the Atlantic Forest. This forest was the biggest concentration of plant and animal species on the planet, much more important than the Amazon Forest. The Atlantic forest contains many different biomes (ecosystems) in the same forest - compositions like the Caatinga (White forest), the coastal forest, the mangroves, the Restinga (vegetation in the sandy coastal plain), and the highland biomes like the Mantiqueira mountains and the Serra do Mar.

The extermination of the Atlantic forest continues to the present time. The green desert takes its place, forming dry rivers, desertification, salinization and erosion, altering the climate and destroying the habitat of many avian, mammal and plant species in its damaging march forward.