The Forgotten Biomes of Brazil.

(photo: FCBS)

"Brazil has many biomes of which the most famous are the Amazon Forest and the Atlantic Rain Forest. Sadly, rapid deforestation is taking care of the former and only 7% is left of the latter! But there´s more, much more to be told when it comes to Brazil´s inexhaustible ability to destroy what it can not create.

This article covers the Cerrado, one of the Brazilian biomes "forgottten" by our legislators back in 1988, when the chapter of natural environment was being discussed for the new constitution to be soon released. The final voting defined the Amazon forest, the Atlantic Rain forest, the Serra do Mar, the Pantanal and the sea coast as national heritage areas. Ironically, the legal guarantee was of little effect, for the rate of destruction has only increased ever since!

But what about the Cerrado and the Caatinga, the two forgotten biomes not covered by the constitution? Well, what can I say? The readers know how politicians costumarily react to pressure from private interests (agribusiness and landowners). This time was not different. These areas were declared open to exploitation and "development", whatever this means. The inescapable consequence couldn´t be different: the rate of deforestation of the Cerrado now reaches a record of 30.000 km2 per year! A Project to amend the constitution by granting the Cerrado and Caatinga the necessary protection given to the other biomes is under discussion since...1995! (PAC 115/95).

To illustrate the catastrophic situation of the Cerrado, we have choosen to comment on the extraordinary Chapada Diamantina National Park (Diamond Highlands)in the state of Bahia, located in the northeast of Brazil, not far from mainland Europe, on the other side of the Atlantic. In Portuguese, the word chapada means a region of steep cliffs and Diamantina refers to the diamonds found there in the mid 1800s when Lençois was an important center of diamond mining.

Chapada Diamantina Chapada Diamantina Chapada Diamantina

"The region is semi-arid, however it has no shortage of water, from the many rivers and streams. The park is typified by hills, mountains, valleys and monoliths, with few plains."¹

The National Park of the Chapada Diamantina was created in 1985 but the federal government has not invested in the necessary infrastructure to guarantee the conservation of the area. In fact, a great portion of the land is privately owned but without personnel, transportation and material support it is impossible to enforce the necessary conservation measures.

Roy Funch The Chapada was the dream come true of an American-Brazilian biologist called Roy Funch. He convinced the Brazilian goverment to buy up large portions of land to ensure its survival and became the first Director of the Chapada Diamantina National Park. Funch has lived in Lençois - since 1978 - where he works as a guide, craftsman, biologist and writer. His books are a reference to the Chapada and we owe him very much for his idealism and realizations.

"In the mountains where the Chapada Diamantina National Park is located, altitudinal variations, topography, soils, strengh and orientation of the sun-light, and the rapidly changing humidity of the soil and the air, create opportunities for a rich and varied vegetation - a complex mosaic of ecosystems , which range from forests and swamps (at 400 meters/1300 feet) to high rock peak (1700 meters/5600 feet), each with their own unique and highly-adapted plant life". ²

The bulk of the vegetation types of the National Park is Cerrado (grassland with shrubs and small trees) or Savanna - a popular definition that the public will recognise and understand - but for the privileged readers of FCBS we prefer using a more precise definition:

-"Campos Rupestres (rocky fields from 700 to 2000 m) basically herbs and shrubs with sparce trees in a thin layer of poor soil (sand, pebbles or gravel). Tough weather. In order to survive under these severe conditions, plants had to adopt different strategies. This explains why they became highly specialized. Bromeliads, for instance, have water tanks to hold the rainwater which are the source of food and shelter for other forms of life. Campos Rupestres are an extraordinary ecosystem with very high endemism and diversity. Fire and drought are their worst enemies;

- Campos Gerais (open fields above 800 m) are "flat open grassland valleys found 800 m (2600 feet) or more above sea level. The soils are very sandy, extremely acidic, and have very low fertility....Even though the nutritive value of this natural pasture is very low, the local ranchers drive their cattle up to these high valleys in the dry season to take advantage of the water always available there. The problem is that they set fire to the whole área to force the grasses to sprout (the mature plants are too tough for the cattle), and the wildfires spread to every corner of the Park.

Together, the Campos Rupestres and Campos Gerais vegetation cover about 90% of the National Park area".²

The Brazilian Cerrado is the richest biodiversified Savanna in the world. It has more than 10,000 species of plants with an incredible 45% of endemism! It extends to almost 2 million square kilometers, approximately three times the size of the state of Texas in the United States.

"The area of Mucuge, in the State of Bahia, surveyed by personnel from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau in Itabuna, shows some 670 plant species in about 900 square kilometres. The Serra do Cipo, a small sub-region of the Serra do Espinhaço at much the same latitude as New Caledonia, has been extensively investigated by teams from the University of São Paulo and the São Paulo Institute of Botany. Results to date show an extraordinary 1590 species in an area of only 200 square kilometres. Similar or higher counts, involving different species, are expected from elsewhere in the mountain range. (As a comparison, the whole of the British Isles, with an area of 151 000 square kilometres, has only about 1500 species of plants)". ³

Here is a brief list of the genera of bromeliads found in the Cerrado: Aechmea, Billbergia, Bromelia, Cottendorfia, Cryptanthus, Dyckia, Hohenbergia, Encholirium, Neoglaziovia, Neoregelia, Orthophytum, Tillandsia and Vriesea. All formidable plants, highly specialized and a balm to the eye and the spirit but increasingly consumed by criminal fires. Today, only about 20% of the original Cerrado is left and of that, only about 3% is protected. The disappearance of these sanctuaries is a tragic loss to mankind.

Notes:

¹ Wikipedia

² "A visitor´s guide to the Chapada Diamantina Mountains" by Roy Funch - See also: http://fcd.org.br/

³ "Towards Greater Knowledge of the Brazilian Semi-Arid Biodiversity", by Ana Maria Giulietti, Raymond Mervin Harley, Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz & Alessandro Rapini.  (Oscar Ribeiro of Bromeliário Imperialis | FCBS)

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What is good for the park, is good for its people.

(photo: Guia da Chapada Diamantina)

"Since our arrival in the Chapada Diamantina National Park, we feel that its history represents a strong symbol for our search. The contrast between the diamond extraction on one hand and the conservation of nature on the other, combined with the ongoing challenge to reduce poverty teach important lessons for those who envision a new balance between Earth and Man. The history of this park is mixed up with the life history of the man who first envisioned it, Roy Funch, an American biologist and naturalized Brazilian. We had the privilege to get to now him personally, and this post is an attempt to share what we learned in our conversation with him.

Roy Funch and us

Roy arrived in Brazil in 1977 as a Peace Corps volunteer from the United States. He knew very little about Brazil. He did not know that the language of the country was Portuguese and imagined that the Amazon covered the entire country. As a biologist passionate about nature, it was the image of a paradise. Hence, at his arrival, he was disappointed. In Brazil there where cars, big buildings and life was much more urban than he had thought.

After a short stay in Lavras in Minas Gerais, he was sent to Brasília to work on management plans for national parks at the Brazilian Institute for Forest Development (Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento Florestal (IBDF)), today the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio)). In theory, the work was interesting, but in practice he spent few days in the parks and a lot of days in an office in Brasília. It was not what he wanted.

He managed to get transferred to Recife but that post also was not what he wanted. Traveling with friends through the interior of Bahia for São João (big celebration in June) he got to Lençóis, Bahia for the first time. Lençóis is today the main tourist center of the Chapada Diamantina. His life would never be the same: “No exaggeration, I did not look for a place, but still in the bus, I thought, I found it!”

He went on some hikes with local miners, got to know the Fumaça waterfall from below and other places of the Sincorá ridge. His friends left after a week but he stayed. He rented a house in Lençóis where he lives until today. There, he had many roles and functions: Guide, Director of the National Park (which he calls a punishment since he had fought for its creation), Mining Inspector, head of the city’s tourism department and today of its environment department.

When Roy arrived in Lençóis the city was very different from today. Mining for diamonds and carbonate, the dominating activity in the region, paid little. The city was very poor, the historical heritage was not well taken care of, and the population was made up of mainly old and very young people, since all working age adults migrated to the Southeast (mainly São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) in search for a better life. In the words of Roy, the city seemed to be the scenery for an old Western movie.

Yet the Sincorá ridge, its rivers and waterfalls were still there. Mining had, up to that point, been mainly manual and the degradation coming from diamond exploration, while existing, had not yet compromised its beauty. Roy became friends with the mining community and spent his time discovering the mountains. He hiked the ridge so often that he became an expert for its history and trails.

One time, in 1979, hiking in direction of Vale do Capão, the sky opened and he was overwhelmed by the incredible scenery. In that moment, he had the flash of an idea: “if this place were in Europe or the United States, it would certainly be a national park.” That was when he began to fight for the plan of a national park to protect the Sincorá ridge.

It was not an easy task. During those times, there was little environmental consciousness in the country, economic progress was the main driver for development and very few people could imagine that nature’s resources are limited. Even some friends did not believe in his campaign for the creation of a park!

In addition to Roy’s persistence, various other factors helped the process along. The main factor was the construction of a hotel by the state to promote tourism in the region. Several important people of the political scene of Bahia stayed there: ministers, members of parliament, senators and future governors. When these people arrived in Lençóis, they often asked for a guide to get to know the area. The local people would answer: “Guide, what guide? Talk to the American, he likes walking around the mountains.”

So Roy, besides being paid for what he did anyway, was able to sell his project to important figures of the Bahia state government. Some of them bought his idea and after a long journey, the park was created in 1985. But this did not happen without challenges. In 1982 almost everything was ready for the inauguration, the opening date was set and the official ceremony organized, when the government, under pressure from the miners and the “run for the diamonds”, decided to stop the process.

Diamond exploitation had seen a revival. Exploration entered into a new cycle in the early 1980ies using machines to extract the diamonds. That exploration was not regulated and was controlled by a few people. Still, in this extremely poor region, the little the local population gained was more than before. As Roy put it: “Every little thing was something, the old times were relived.”

Initially, Roy had not included their main exploration area as part of the park, but the federal government did, confronting the diamond miners. Mining for diamonds was illegal and as such did not generate taxes. Moreover, there was a strong media pressure for the closure of the exploration activities. TV Globo (the main national TV channel) produced several reports against this activity, and, around 1992, filmed the soap opera Pedra Sobre Pedra (Stone over stone) in Lençóis, which became a big national success. This contributed to an increase in eco-tourism in the region and strongly supported the conservation of the park.

The diamond miners fought as long as they could to continue their activities. During that time, Roy worked as mining inspector and as such had the role to reconcile the conservation of the park with the diamond exploration. He tried to convince the miners to use cleaner, yet more expensive techniques, to protect the water of the rivers. Despite his attempts, they reached no agreement, since the diamond explorers were not interested in increasing their costs to protect nature. In 1996, 6 months after leaving his job as inspector and mediator, the army closed the all non-manual mining activities.

Today, there is no machine mining left and the park receives thousands of visitors from all over the world. Lençóis and the other cities in the region grew and have more resources for conservation, not just of the environment, but also of their historical heritage.

The Chapada Diamantina National Park, like the majority of Brazil’s national parks is still not fully implemented. There are neither fences nor gates, nor enough resources for their maintenance. Yet, there can be no doubt that the park exists. It exists in the hearts of many people, in particular in those of the local population. The guide associations clean its trailswithout extra remuneration, many local citizens are volunteers in the fire brigades, and the new generations see in the park their heritage that has to be preserved.

There are still many challenges to be confronted. Roy reminded us that besides companies without a sense of environmental responsibility, poverty is another big enemy of nature. To overcome poverty, people invade protected areas to live, plant, hunt or search for precious stones. They often are not environmentally conscious since their main concern is to survive. In Lençóis, ecotourism lead to economic growth in the city, but poverty still persists, since the newly generated opportunities attracted thousands of people from the surrounding areas in search for a better life.

This is why today through ecotourism and in the past by promoting clean mining Roy fought and continues to fight for the importance of reconciling conservation with economic activities to the benefit of both nature and people. For his history and his role in the creation of Chapada Diamantina National Park, Roy is for us a great example." (Suficiente)

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Roy Funch - Lençóis in the 70's.

(Fonte: Guia da Chapada Diamantina)

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Diamond Highlands (A Chapada Diamantina).

(photo: Roy Funch)

The Chapada Diamantina (Diamond Highlands) is a wonderful place to visit. Beautiful scenery, friendly people, clean fresh water from the mountains, lots of places to swim, even more places to hike (and not much at all in the way of bugs, thorns, scratchy/itchy plants, tropical illnesses, or things that go bump in the night).

I've lived here since 1978 (came down with the Peace Corps) and do guiding, write books, work with crafts (stained glass and stone clocks), do translations (scientific, I'm a biologist), research (right now, on giant termite mound fields), and go hiking in the hills as often as possible. I helped establish the National Park, and was its very first Director (1985-90).

My hobby is what could be called modern archaeology  -  documenting the remnants of the mining era, the things made out of stone, including rustic miners' shelters ("tocas"), stone houses, dams, aqueducts, cemeteries, the mines themselves. Everything stays put and intact - just photographs, GPS localization, descriptions. Quite often one finds old Amerindian drawings (petrographs) on the rock walls. They get documented, too.

(photo: Personal Archive)

TOURS

I offer didactic tours - walking, talking, explaining what you are seeing, and answering questions about the geology and vegetation, the water, the mountains, the embedded history of diamond mining in the region – plus lots of swimming and rock-hopping.

You've probably seen photos of the area, or have had some friends who have visited – there are a lot of exciting things to see and places to visit - the Pai Inácio Mountain, the Sossego, Mosquito, and Buração Falls, the Ribeirão do Meio rock-slide, the ever-so-tall Fumaça Falls, the almost ghost town of Igatú are almost obligatory. But, I try not to get in the car too much, as there is a lot of beautiful hiking right out of town.

My specialty is really off-the-main-trail hikes to places almost no one ever visits (except the miners and hunters). The outings will be tailored, of course, to your physical conditioning, the weather, and checking in with the spirits of the mountain.

You’ll receive a complimentary copy of my book “A Visitor’s Guide to the Chapada Diamantina”

Other services:

• Transportation to the Chapada Diamantina (by car or bus)
• Local transfers
• Lodging (lots of options!)

Odds and Ends:

• Credit cards are good, but not accepted everywhere.
• You can use your credit card to get local money (Reais) from the ATM machines (but not guaranteed on long weekends in Lençóis – the machine can get drained). 
• Kind of hard to change money (though if the Brazilian economy really tanks, it may get easier).
• Hat, solar protector, sun glasses.
• Comfortable, worn-in tennis shoes/trainers/sneakers will do, boots aren’t necessary. 
• Everyone brings bug spray, but I never find much of a need for the stuff at all on day trips, or in town.

Unsolicited recommendations:

"If I was still around, I'd love to do the cave trip again."  B. Ladin

"When I get Brazil to build the wall, we'll leave a gate for the Chapada Diamantina."  D. Trump

"I loved the park! No traffic jams!"    C. Christie

"It was great to hike with Roy – he could almost keep up with my pace."   V. Putin

"No, no, no, no, never."   T. Cruz

"The National Park isn't bad, for a federally controlled area."       C. Bundy

"Wonderful! I took sooooo many selfies".   K. Kardashian

Downloads:

• "Termite mounds as dominant landforms in semiarid northeastern Brazil"  ~ here or here
• "Mapping and evaluation of the state of conservation of the vegetation in and surrounding the Chapada Diamantina National Park, NE Brazil" ~ here or here

(Click to enlarge)

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