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Beyond the Amazon - Why the Rainforest's fame get in the way of preserving other ecosystems

Healthy Landscapes

You don't always have to extract mankind to preserve nature. "It's possible to occupy a portion of the Amazon, the law permits it. But where? How? You need to have clear rules, not just a percentage, be it 20% or 80%, because in this case everything gets treated in the same uniform fashion", says Claudio Padua.

And taking into account the presence of mankind in all of the biomes mentioned, protecting these ecosystems is important for our own survival, as well. Today, for example, only the Amazon region is being systematically monitored, year by year, to keep a check on deforestation, which results in higher carbon emissions and contributes to global warming, as well as having an adverse effect on the biomes themselves. Despite the high costs involved, Nobre believes that in five years time INPE will have developed a similar system for each of Brasil's biomes.

"... we need tighter regulations, more control over the way mankind treats the landscape", agrees Jose Augusto Padua. "The criteria shouldn't just be to preserve untouched ecosystems, but to create and maintain ecologically healthy landscapes. We need greater infrastructure, we need to protect sources of fresh water, maintain the soil's capacity to regenerate itself and look after each region's biodiversity".

With the world heating up

Each biome is home to similar species of plants and animals and is shaped by the local climate and soil. "To have a tropical rainforest, you need hot weather and water on the ground all year long", explains Carlos Nobre of INPE. Tropical savannahs such as the Cerrado like heat and long dry seasons. The humid climate and diverse landscape of the coastline explains the Atalantic Rainforest's varied flora - the subtropical jungle once stretched all along the coast, from Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul, and inland as far as Paraguay and Argentina. Dry tropical scrubland like the Caatinga adapted to the sparse rainfall and rocky soil of the Brasilian Northeast. The quality of the soil determined the development of the Pampas or Southern Plains, whose climatic characteristics alone enable the growth of subtropical woodland in the region, according to specialists.

Climate change, however, has a direct effect on the different biomes - in the case of Brasil, a large part of the country's populated land. That's why there's so much worry about predicted rates of global warming. "The Amazon's ecosystem is very sensitive, the semi-arid regions are too", reveals Nobre, adding that the trend is for the jungle to become savannah and the Caatinga a semi-desert. The Cerrado would benefit from higher temperatures, spreading southwards, but at a loss to its biodiversity. The Atlantic Rainforest could spread into the more humid regions of the Pampas, whilst the subropical forest still remaining in the Northeast would be lost forever.

One thing's for sure: if Brasil's other biomes don't receive at least a fraction of the attention given to the Amazon, the ecosystems and biodiversity of Brasil and the world in general are at great risk.