Picturing the Brazil Forest Fires

Editor's Note: Yesterday we shared a post from Frederico Schlottfeldt on the Brazil forest fires in our Brazil office. Today we share a direct encounter of the fires from our Brazil Director. In mid-August 2010, ACT-Brazil Director Vasco van Roosmalen traveled via the BR-364 road in the Brazilian state of Rondônia between the population centers of Cacoal and Porto Velho. The area represents one of the great remaining Amazonian frontier regions, and is susceptible to forest fires, many created intentionally to clear land.  

Vasco documented the air effects of these fires:

“It is hard to capture in a photo just how much smoke from forest fires is covering the area. It has been really bad for almost a week now. These pictures were taken on the outskirts of Cacoal, where Metareila, the association of the indigenous Surui people is located.

We are in the middle of the Amazon, where there just isn't enough industry and there are not enough cars to create smog like this over such a large area. The sky in these pictures should be full blue...there is not a cloud in the sky.”

Vasco van Roosmalen
ACT Brazil Director

Increasing Forest Fires in Rondonia, Brazil

For more than a week, a cover of smoke in the sky around the Brazilian state of Rondonia has drawn the attention of residents and visitors. Fires have increased significantly in the local forests. One of the hardest hit regions is between Porto Velho and Cacoal.

Smoke over Rondonia

The situation in Rondonia resembles that of other regions of the country. According to the National Institute of Space Research, fires in Brazil increased 85 percent in 2010. The research was based on the time period from January 1 through August 12. A recent article published by Folha de São Paulo, one of the most recognized newspapers in Brazil cited that 25,999 fires occurred during this period compared to 14,019 in 2009. Studies conducted by researchers from the Institute of Physics of São Paulo´s University (USP), and financed by Fapesp, found that the air quality in the Amazon during this period, due to fires, is worse than the air of São Paulo.

The states of Brazil with the largest number of fires were Mato Grosso (6,693); Tocantins (4,210); Pará (2,526); and Bahia (2,020). In 2010, Mato Grosso has experienced a 91percent increase in fires.

For over a decade, ACT has been pointing out the clear and unbreakable link between healthy forest and human health. In the southwest Amazon, the destruction of the forest has brought drought, fires, airport closures, economic costs and human misery.

Frederico Schlottfeldt
ACT Brazil
Communications Coordinator

Environmental Education

Editor's Note: Dr. Sara Bennett is a biologist who leads a small NGO, Maikuchiga, in Colombia’s Amacayacu National Park that operates a rescue center for orphaned animals.  The Park, in the nation’s Amazonas state, is traversed by the Amazon River. This post is one in a series from Dr. Bennett. Post originally developed February 6, 2010.

Saturday morning, Animals House. Claudia, the littlest, special-needs woolly monkey, is a nice warm, fast asleep, softly snoring, getting better lump on my lap. It’s raining quietly outside, with no drama.  The river’s rising.

Dr. Sara Bennett with manatee

There is no crisis at the moment and no one’s being bad (Aladino having just fixed the hole one of the squirrel monkeys either made or found to get into the kitchen and make a big mess).  A faraway hoodoo pigeon is calling “hoo doo, hoo doo.”  Lo, the spirit moves.

A friend from Palmeras, the community just upriver, told us last week that there was a woolly monkey in Eugenio’s house that was probably the aforementioned Surba. Jhon and I went up to check it out. It checked out and we’re concerned again.  They’d come across her in the woods about a two hour walk away, and either she came back with them or they brought her back and was with them a few days in their house. They left the house alone on Sunday and she was gone when they came back. The upriver communities think woolly monkeys are delicious and fair game. The four downriver communities think woolly monkeys are delicious and have agreed not to hunt them. We have spread the word that if someone helps us round her up (alive), the reward will be better than one monkey stew.

So, ahem, Topic for the Day here: environmental education in acculturated indigenous communities.  Whatever does this mean and how do you do whatever it is? Without being Right, culturally insensitive, overbearing, arrogant, well-meaning, out-of-context, irrelevant, disrespectful  …  There are a lot of reasons to let this be someone else’s responsibility.  Someone Else hasn’t shown up.

We Want our Planet Back.

New Orleans is the most aquatic of American cities.

This may seem surprising, in light of the fact that other cities exist atop islands, making them a more likely candidate for this title, but a number of factors bear consideration.

Sited as it is in a crescent-shaped bend in the Mississippi River, New Orleans is surrounded by river to the west, south, and east. And, to the north is Lake Ponchartrain, the second largest saltwater lake in the United States.

And what makes the city so thoroughly aquatic is the water underneath. When I was growing up in New Orleans, I was taught that we lived at sea level. Post-Katrina, we all know that such is not the case – the Crescent City, to a large degree, is below sea level. With the exception of some relatively high ground areas like the French Quarter, St. Charles Avenue and the Esplanade ridge, much of New Orleans is a below sea-level bowl into which water poured after that horrible hurricane.

Perhaps the two most unique aspects of New Orleans’ culture and history are intimately linked to this aquatic setting. Ask anyone who has been to New Orleans what makes the city so unique, and the two most common answers are almost always the same— food and music. And the food comes from the water around us: crabs, crawfish, oysters, shrimp, seafood gumbo and jambalaya, frogs legs and turtle soup. New Orleanians have a sensual – almost erotic - fixation with their food. Just ask an ex-pat New Orleanian planning on a visit to his or her hometown where and what they will be eating, and you will receive a detailed response more akin to planning the D-Day invasion of Normandy than a simple trip home.

And New Orleanians treasure most highly the foods from the waters that surround them. New Orleanians feast on foods from the waters.

From the classical compositions of Louis Gottschalk to the rhythm and blues piano of Professor Longhair to the rap stylings of Lil’ Wayne, New Orleans has produced more than its share of music and musicians. But the most important musical genre born in the Crescent City is jazz. While many different cultures contributed to the birth of jazz, most credit the combination of African, Caribbean, and European sounds as having the greatest influence. And all of these influences met and mixed because New Orleans was such an important port of entry into the United States.

But the Gulf through which New Orleans has derived so much sustenance – both edible and cultural – still fills with poison. In the wonderful 1999 film “Three Kings,” the American soldier played by Mark Wahlberg is captured by Saddam’s soldiers. They tie him up, say he and the Americans can have all the oil they want, and they force him to drink it – a sad, frightening, and somewhat appropriate analogy to the situation we have witnessed on the nightly news for 57 days.

Breaking our addiction to foreign oil has been a much bandied-about goal since the Carter Presidency. After 9/11, journalist Tom Friedman called for a dollar a gallon tax on gasoline to reduce demand and provide generous funding for research on alternative energy sources. None of these propitious cries were heeded.

BP’s CEO recently whined that he “wants his life back.” Well, Tony – we want our Gulf back.  We want our economy, culture, seafood, and our wetlands back.  We want our history and our way of life back. We want our planet back.

We are all somewhat complicit in this disaster—all of us who use fossil fuels, all of us who waste fossil fuels. But now we all see more of the real costs: injured wildlife, human suffering, and cultural degradation that happens when we do not treasure Mother Nature and her gifts.  Giving giant companies a free hand—free from regulation, free from oversight—does not mean there is a free ride.  Eventually, the bill comes due—and we all end up paying it.

Mark J. Plotkin, Ph.D.

ACT's Present Position on Climate Change

ACT believes, on the basis of very strong evidence, that accelerating global climate change is a reality, and that this acceleration is caused by human activities, specifically the injection of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Though it is not possible to predict the exact consequences of the overall warming trend that this increase in the greenhouse effect creates, ACT also believes that it is sensible to expect that some local changes may have very negative effects on vulnerable populations, both human and otherwise.

Indeed, it is already obvious that many areas—notably the temperate zones where humans live—are becoming drier, putting increased pressure on already scant water resources. Over time, the more our planet warms, the fewer winners and the more losers there will be. Therefore, both mitigation and adaptation strategies are needed.

Read more about ACT and mitigating climate change.

Tragedy in Haiti

Stories of despair are resonating around the world – stories of orphaned children, displaced families, and an absence of food and water. These stories simply cannot and should not be ignored. Recovery from natural disaster cannot easily be accomplished, yet the Haitian people continue to maintain resilience and look forward. We’re confident that they will prevail, as the Haitian people have for so many years proven that their collective heart is strong. In recent days, we’ve shown how powerful a movement for relief can be if we all pitch in for a common cause, and ACT shares its thoughts and prayers with those lost and hurt by the tragedy in Haiti. 

Find out how you can help by clicking here: http://www.cidi.org/incident/haiti-10a/

Mac Fanieh tries to rescue a teacher, trapped amid the rubble of the earthquake, as he crawls past a schoolgirl that died at Ecole St. Gerard Technical School in Port-au-Prince.

Carol Guzy-The Washington Post

Meet Dr. Sara Bennett

A note from ACT President, Dr. Mark Plotkin: I first met Sara Bennett over 30 years ago when she appeared my office at the Harvard Botanical Museum. “I’m headed for the Colombian Amazon,” she began 


...Still there, doing that.

The lower Apaporis River, where she rucked up for fifteen years, had been included in the list of “preselected areas” for eventual inclusion into the Colombian National Park system. There were hardly any humans there at the time. A good place to do ecosystem science, and to live (not necessarily in that order). With a National Geographic Society grant she dug in to find out about the seasonal rhythms of the forest; the orphaned animals were never part of a plan. That just happened. So did the drawing and the musings. Sara has since been an exotic element in the fauna of Amacayacu National Park (on the Colombian stretch of the Amazon River) for almost ten years, and a supporting actor/loose-cannon-on-deck in an evolving dynamic with the acculturated indigenous communities who share jurisdiction for much of the area’s management. This is a unique vantage point for perceiving, sharing, and (ojalá, which translates loosely as “maybe” [in a hopeful tone of voice]) bridging some of the gaps across cultures and languages.

Her incredible experience, knowledge, wisdom and humility have led at least one colleague to call her the “Jane Goodall of the Amazon.” In this new blog, Sara shares her insights and experiences with us: about her primate family and friends (including humans and other animals, wild or otherwise), her observations, her opinions, and even her drawings. We are all privileged to have these off-the-wall reports from the heart of the Colombian Amazon.”

Letters from the Colombian Amazon, where some wild things still are. (Whatever do you do about it?)

By Dr. Sara Bennett

“You know you’ve been in the woods too long when …. It blows your mind to go to the Portland (Maine) grocery store, for starters and, in general, one’s “obviousnesses” don’t match up any more with anybody else’s. Results in Dangerous Questions (1). Sometimes it’s so crazy it gets hilarious … and laughing sometimes results in insights and always feels good. Sometimes it gets impossible. Grief, rage, boredom, and despair happen. And then, (this is a quote, I forget whose): “Things are only impossible until they’re not.”

This golb (amorphous, with potential) is a reality check. It’s brought to you by ACT (and especially Liliana Madrigal, whose knack for the strategic noodge or powdermilk biscuit makes her one of the benevolent forces of nature). The intention here: to respond thoughtfully to her invitation to express and look at what comes up for a New Englander long in the Colombian Upper Amazon and share what’s coming down.

Maikuchiga means “the monkeys’ story” in Tikuna (2). We’re a small, funky ngo that runs a rescue center for orphaned animals, mostly monkeys, in Amacayacu National Park (Colombia), as the most visible element of an overall program to design and implement human alternatives consistent with the long-term conservation functions of an important protected area. The park overlaps with acculturated indigenous communities eager to participate as intensely as possible in the cash economy. Some of these people are concerned about how to hang on to some cultural identity as well: for the Tikuna, hunting is important…and so are hair gel, a cell phone, a chainsaw...

Like, picture The Gods Must Be Crazy – played out on the banks of the Amazon, with less plot resolution.

Nobody seems to have the script.

___

[1] Dangerous Questions, recurring themes of:

• The right amount of “Stuff” – (how do you know?)
• Bounty, scarcity, enough (cf., you’ll never get enough of stuff you don’t need)
• Caring and sharing (remember kindergarten?) – of bounty, scarcity, stuff at different scales.
• “Stuff” and the aesthetics of living, social status, good design
• Complex systems, (common name = Horrible Messes). Individual behaviors and collective consequences. How do you know what you know? How do you save the planet by consuming less while buying more to save the economy?

[2] The Tikuna comprise the dominant of several indigenous ethnic groups in this area of the Amazon.

So, (riffing off Maurice Sendak): “Let the wild rumpus begin…”

___

Next installment: woolly walkabout.  Coming soon:

· Environmental education in the Amazon and what that should look like.
· Science in Amazonian conservation: the paradigms, the protagonists, and the protected areas
· Seasonal rhythms in lowland rainforest and climate change. More uncomfortable projections you’d just as soon not know about.

The current cast of main characters includes:

Critters – woollies, capuchins, flying monkey, squirrel monkeys, stinkpoo night monkey, reddish sea monkey (aka dusky titi), black-mantled tamarins, pygmy marmoset, the dawg…others will fall out of the sky.

Humans – Jhon, Leoncio, Aladino, Lucho, María, Manuel, Sara, the indigenous community of Mocagua, the Amacayacu park staff (including assorted students and volunteers), the profe’s ([pron. PROfays, affectionate slang for profesOR], teachers from local primary schools), the visitors to the park...

Maikuchiga happened because sometimes some problems represent solutions for other problems, and sometimes somebody perceives this. The problems:

1. Providing ethical and humane care for animals confiscated from illegal wildlife traffic.
2. Providing disincentives for the regional commercialization of fauna, especially by increasing the probability of law enforcement (i.e., confiscation of the animals).
3. Motivating the inhabitants of the indigenous communities that use the natural resources of a major national park to manage wildlife populations sustainably.
4. Developing high-quality experiences for ecotourists to the region, who are often disappointed when they don’t see animals.
5. Enriching local education with environmental activities not otherwise available in the normal curricula.
6. Restoring ecosystem integrity in an area where the large primates are locally extinct and where there is now a local norm no longer to hunt them.

___

The primary function of Maikuchiga is to care for confiscated or otherwise “accidented” animals (especially monkeys, but whatever shows up that doesn’t eat or get eaten by the residents of the moment) in the Colombian Amazon and, when appropriate, give these individuals the opportunity to re-integrate into wild populations. The area is both national park and indigenous reserve, distinctive because the local residents have decided no longer to hunt endangered species, with special emphasis on the large primates. This was a miracle, but not an accident, which resulted from a previous project focused on an endangered species of curassow that generalized to overall community natural resource management. Maikuchiga, the park and community members have developed an interpretive activity about monkey natural history and conservation that provides some significant “green” income and also generates indirect benefits by buying school supplies for all the kids in the community.