<
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/a-community-led-strategy-to-save-brazils-dry-forests-from-desertification/>
"UAUÁ, Bahia, Brazil — In the backlands of northern Bahia state, nobody ever
thought about putting up a fence in the woods. According to the tradition that
governs fundo de pasto communities, the Caatinga dry forest belongs to
everyone: Everything there, from trees to cactuses, should remain freely
accessible. That’s what a
fundo de pasto (“back pasture”) precisely is: a
shared expanse of native vegetation, preserved over generations, where
community members collectively tend to their goats, gather fruits and harvest
herbs. It has always been like that in Lages das Aroeiras, a community close to
the town of Uauá. Until the Caatinga began to die.
“The Caatinga has died a lot,” says Waldemar Cardoso da Silva, 75, under the
shade of one of the rare centuries-old
imburana trees (
Commiphora
leptophloeos) still standing in Lages das Aroeiras. Same story for the
baraúnas (
Schinopsis brasiliensis), the
quixabeiras (
Sideroxylon
obtusifolium), even the
aroeiras (
Astronium urundeuva), the ones that give
the place its name. “You have to walk a lot to find one.” All of them are large
trees, “the kinds that hover” as Waldemar defines them, with canopies so lush
that spotting one house from another was nearly impossible due to the leafy
Caatinga of older times.
When Waldemar, a resident of Lages das Aroeiras since he was born, speaks of a
dead Caatinga, it’s presumed that what existed before was a living Caatinga —
which challenges the prevailing logic that this rugged territory in
northeastern Brazil is a hostile land averse to life. Proof to the contrary is
that this is the most populous semiarid place in the world, inhabited by 28
million people. Not to mention the vibrant culture that flourished here.
It’s also the rainiest dryland region on the planet, although rainfall is
poorly distributed throughout the year — just four months; the rest is drought.
Plus, the soil is mostly shallow and rocky, which in theory does not favor
plant growth. However, the latest count detected the presence of 3,150 plant
species in the Caatinga, a fifth of them endemic. That allows around 1,400
species of vertebrates, including 548 bird species and 183 mammal species, to
call it home.
That is possible because everyone here — plants, animals and humans — has
learned to coexist with an adverse climate, where the sun easily evaporates
every drop of water running on the ground. To avoid dying of thirst, plants
have developed ways to store water in the dry months, improved their roots to
capture maximum moisture from the soil and lost their leaves to avoid
transpiration — which, in drought times, gives the Caatinga the grayish hue
that gave it the original Tupi name, “white forest.” Come the first rains,
everything is green again."
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
