Deforestation and Disaster

Without trees, a tropical ecosystem turns wasteland

The scorching sun roasts the skeletons of jacaranda trees. The soil, dry and hard, looks like baked clay. Rivers, once navigated by 5,000-ton ships, are now so choked by sand bars that a canoe can barely nose through. Bridges cross dry gulches overgrown with weeds and shrubs. Many once plentiful plants and birds are gone, and human beings who live there are disfigured by skin cancer. The scene is 300 sq. mi. in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, a once lush strip north of Rio de Janeiro that is now on its way to becoming a desert. The cause of this ecological disaster: man.

Some three decades ago, descendants of German Pomeranian immigrants, who had farmed in Brazil's mountains for a hundred years, moved toward the coast and settled in the tropical Atlantica forest. Clearing the land for farming, these settlers burned valuable jacaranda and peroba trees. Once a road was built, the region was open for an invasion of wood exporters, armed with chain saws, who cut down the rest of the forest. Any wood not exported was consigned as fuel to Brazil's burgeoning steel industry.

"The area went from forest to zero," laments Brazilian Environmentalist Augusto Ruschi. "There were no gradual, intermediate stages. Within 20 years, the Atlantica forest was turned into pasture lands and coffee plantations, and now the area is marching toward desertification." The process is hastened by decreased rainfall. Even when it does rain the water runs off quickly, because there are no tree roots left to hold it. Nutrients are washed away, and the land can barely support the Pomeranians' cattle and subsistence crops.

As a result, the entire ecosystem is completely off balance. During the past 20 years, at least 450 varieties of plants and 204 species of birds have disappeared from the region. With so many of their natural enemies gone, pests and parasites have proliferated, attacking grass, leaves and fruit. Says Farmer Franz Hummel, "Nobody even bothers to raise papaya any more--they are all full of bugs."

Plants and birds are not the only things to suffer. Says Dr. Douglas Puppin, chairman of the dermatology department at the Federal University of Espirito Santo: "Ninety percent of the people I examine from that area have skin cancer or precancerous lesions." The reason: the light-skinned Pomeranians have far less melanin, a protective pigment, than most other, darker-skinned Brazilians. With the trees gone, says Puppin, "children are constantly in the sun. We try to warn them, but you can't expect kids to walk around in hats and long sleeves in the midday heat."

While the Pomeranians can move away from the region, there is no quick cure for a dying ecosystem that took thousands of years to create. The Brazilian government has offered fiscal incentives for reforestation of the area, but profit-hungry companies respond by planting Australian eucalyptus and American pine, trees better suited for making a quick buck than for restoring an original habitat. Says Ruschi: "There are laws prohibiting the killing of rare species, but there are no laws preventing the destruction of the whole forest." Environmentalists are calling for conservation, but for many Brazilians, economic development remains the top priority--even in the face of ecological devastation.

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