https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/science/colombia-park-manacacias.html
"The llanos region spans more than 200,000 square miles through Colombia and
Venezuela. Hot winds blow over its grassy hills, and scattered forests of
Mauritius palms shelter hidden streams and lagoons. For centuries this
landscape, shaped by ancient rivers, has been shared by ranchers and cattle,
which learned to coexist with jaguars, panthers, anacondas, electric eels and
crocodiles.
In December, Colombia declared a new national park in a corner of the llanos
that borders the Manacacías River. The Manacacías joins the larger Meta River;
then the Orinoco River, which forms part of the border with Venezuela; and
there feeds into a tributary of the Amazon. At 263 square miles, the new park,
Parque Nacional Natural Serranía de Manacacías, is not Colombia’s biggest. But
from a conservation perspective it is strategic, protecting a crucial link
between this vast tropical savanna and the Amazon, the world’s largest
rainforest.
The Manacacías park is six hours from the nearest town, San Martín. To reach
it, one must navigate unmarked roads across an undulating sea of green prairie
grass, seldom seeing another vehicle. Cellphone signals die as the sky widens
and the ubiquitous zebu cattle grow sparse.
On a ride into the nascent park in late November, just days before it was
legally declared, Thomas Walschburger, the chief scientist for the Nature
Conservancy in Colombia, explained why it was needed so urgently. Cattle
rearing, the traditional livelihood of the region and one that was easier on
its rivers and soils, was giving way to a new agricultural frontier. Fields of
African oil palms, and white-trunked eucalyptus trees, were encroaching ever
closer to the park’s boundaries.
The sandy, acidic, nutrient-poor soils of the llanos can support these
commercial crops only when doused with fertilizers and calcium carbonate. But
intensive agriculture compromises the water, and the ability to sustain life,
in a key transition zone between the llanos and the Amazon. The hope is that by
protecting this small puzzle piece of savanna, a whole lot more can be saved."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-obamacare-ocean-conservation-ireland-pandas/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
