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Environmental Groups in Brazil Pay Farmers Not to Clear Rain Forest
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL | The New York Times
Paying to keep trees up in Brazil.
José Marcolini, a farmer here, has a permit from the Brazilian government to raze 12,500 acres of rain forest this year to create highly profitable new soy fields. But he is struggling with his conscience. A Brazilian environmental group is offering him a yearly cash payment to leave his forest standing to help combat climate change.
Mr. Marcolini says he cares about the environment. But he also has a family to feed, and he is dubious that the group's initial offer in the negotiation — $12 per acre, per year — is enough for him to accept. "For me to resist the pressure, surrounded by soybeans, I'll have to be paid — a lot," said Mr. Marcolini, 53, noting that cleared farmland here in the state of Mato Grosso sells for up to $1300 an acre.
Mato Grosso means thick forests, and the name was once apt. But today, this Brazilian state is a global epicenter of deforestation. Driven by profits derived from fertile soil, the region’s dense forests have been aggressively cleared over the past decade, and Mato Grasso is now Brazil's leading producer of soy, corn and cattle, exported across the globe by multinational companies.
Deforestation, a critical contributor to climate change, effectively accounts for 20 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions and 70 percent of the emissions in Brazil. It creates carbon emissions through fires and machinery that are used to fell trees, and it also destroys the plant life that helps absorb carbon dioxide emissions from cars and factories around the globe. Halting new deforestation, experts say, is as powerful a way to combat warming as closing all the world's coal plants. But until now, there has been no financial reward for keeping forest standing. Which is why a growing number of scientists, politicians and environmentalists argue that cash payments — like that offered to Mr. Marcolini — are the only way to end tropical forest destruction and provide a game-changing strategy in efforts to limit global warming. >>> Go to Full Story >>>
An Amazon Culture Withers as Food Dries Up
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL | The New York Times
As the naked, painted young men of the Kamayurá tribe prepare for the ritualized war games of a festival, they end their haunting fireside chant with a blowing sound —"whoosh, whoosh" — a symbolic attempt to eliminate the scent of fish so they will not be detected by enemies. For centuries, fish from jungle lakes and rivers have been a staple of the Kamayurá diet, the tribe’s primary source of protein.
But fish smells are not a problem for the warriors anymore. Deforestation and, some scientists contend, global climate change are making the Amazon region drier and hotter, decimating fish stocks in this area and imperiling the Kamayurá's very existence. Like other small indigenous cultures around the world with little money or capacity to move, they are struggling to adapt to the changes. "Us old monkeys can take the hunger, but the little ones suffer — they're always asking for fish," said Kotok, the tribe's chief, who stood in front of a hut containing the tribe's sacred flutes on a recent evening. He wore a white T-shirt over the tribe's traditional dress, which is basically nothing.
Chief Kotok, who like all of the Kamayurá people goes by only one name, said that men can now fish all night without a bite in streams where fish used to be abundant; they safely swim in lakes previously teeming with piranhas. Responsible for 3 wives, 24 children and hundreds of other tribe members, he said his once-idyllic existence had turned into a kind of bad dream.
"I'm stressed and anxious — this has all changed so quickly, and life has become very hard," he said in Portuguese, speaking through an interpreter. "As a chief, I have to have vision and look down the road, but I don't know what will happen to my children and grandchildren."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that up to 30 percent of animals and plants face an increased risk of extinction if global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in coming decades. But anthropologists also fear a wave of cultural extinction for dozens of small indigenous groups — the loss of their traditions, their arts, their languages. >>> Go to Full Story >>>
Brazil's huge wetland under threat
By Gary Duffy BBC News, Pantanal, Brazil
The early hours of the morning in the Pantanal can be an almost deafening experience, as this beautiful wetland area wakes up to a symphony of natural sounds.
There are said to be more species of birds here than in the whole of Europe, living among a patchwork of rivers, lakes, lagoons, forests and islands. The birds are just one part of an abundance of wildlife which makes the Pantanal "a vast ecological sanctuary". Here you can find everything from the alligator-like caiman to the anaconda, one of the biggest snakes in the world.
While no-one disputes the uniqueness of the Pantanal, in recent years concerns have been raised about the impact our changing world is having on this fragile ecosystem.
Life in the wetlands still seems relatively untouched, but those who love this rich and unique ecosystem say it is only with continued vigilance that it will be preserved. >>> Go to Full Story >>>
