Pre-Reflections |
Foz Do Iguaçu Documentaries Reflections
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Pre-Reflections |
Foz Do Iguaçu Documentaries Reflections
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Amazon: Land of the Flooded Forest elaborated heavily on the ecological and hydrological dynamics of the Amazon River basin throughout the course of a year, and how this dynamic affects the native human population. In the basin, human population primarily consists of caboclos and urban working-class workers, both of which are quite poor, but live very different livelihoods. The documentary begins in November, which marks the beginning of the Amazonian wet season. During this time of year, which coincides with the equatorial summer, heavy rainfall inundates the Amazon flooded forest ecosystem, creating an explosion in biodiversity throughout the ecosystem in not just the forest, but also the river. Many Amazonian organisms have a behavioral seasonality, and the wet season brings out this the most of these relationships. A fish species that holds a seasonal relationship is the tambaqui, a type of fish that has evolved very specialized and muscular nutcracker lips designed to crack rubber tree nuts. The nuts germinate in the wet season, and in the humidity of the wet season, crack open and drop into the river below to be consumed by the tambaqui. The fish then deposit the nuts’ seeds throughout the river, thus spreading the trees. Another tree dweller having similar relationships with the forest flora is a species of primate: the bald uakari, one of at least four species of uakari monkeys in the genus Cacajao. The bald uakaris are easily identifiable by their red faces, which serve as an indication of health (the brighter the red, the healthier the uakari). The bald uakaris spent most of the wet season high in the canopy, where they spent many hours a day feeding on fruits and nuts. This helps with germination. The examples of the tambaqui and the uakari are part of a scenario which regularly plays out in Amazonian wet season. The rubber trees and the smorgasbord of trees targeted by the uakaris are reliant on the two species to facilitate their dispersal and germination. The wet season affects the caboclos as well. For example, the rising water levels means that families must do maintenance work around the clock to prevent their houses from flooding. Conversely, the flooding of the river-forest system benefits the caboclo families by supplying them with an abundance of fish. The program also covers the dry season, which begins in March. This is the time of hardship for many animals. Many species of fish initiate mass-exoduses upstream to spawn as the water level in the forests drops. Aquatic reptiles, such as the Arrau turtle, one of the world’s largest freshwater turtles, also commence their annual breeding pilgrimage. Female turtles gather by the thousands on sandy beaches to lay their clutches of eggs. Meanwhile, back in the forests and surrounding rivers, caboclo fishermen reap the benefits of shallower waters, which concentrates fish more densely, thus increasing the catch load. The opposite is occurring in the forest; with the water level significantly lower, terrestrial creatures spread out to the understory and forest floor, having been concentrated in the canopy during the wet season. The recession of the water also allows the caboclo families to tend to their formerly submerged gardens. Their staple crop is manioc, the tubers of which provide the families with substantial nutrients during the dry season. Amazon: Land of the Flooded Forest also elaborates on the issues surrounding Amazon biodiversity, particularly the issues surrounding overfishing. The program follows the research and interactions of naturalist Dr. Michael Goulding, who is one of the world’s leading experts on Amazon biodiversity. In the program, Goulding explains how he first observed a disturbing trend among Amazonian fish. Thanks to overfishing, the average size of most target species had dropped considerably. This was caused by the overfishing performed by commercial fishing vessels that now crowd the Amazon. Commercial fishing has depleted all the stocks of large fish, and as a result, the vessels are having to target subadult or even juvenile fish of the same species. This pattern is most apparent with one of the Amazon’s largest fish, the gargantuan pirarucu (Aracaima spp.). These fish, which max out at three meters, have been severely depleted, and as a result, three meter individuals are quite a rarity nowadays. This overfishing impacts the caboclos, too. Their sustainable fishing practices are all for nought now that their waterways have been overrun by commercial fishermen from the few and far between towns. To alleviate the aforementioned problems, one has to get to the route of the problems, which include social inequality, poverty, and overpopulation/overcrowding. A two part documentary, “A River and its people, Amazon” discusses these issues. Part one, entitled “The Amazon Delta,” covers the issues of the Amazon estuary, around Ile de Marajo and Belem. Ile de Marajo is composed mainly of fishermen and vaqeros (water buffalo and cattle herders). In Belem, the opportunities mainly consist of jobs in Vello Peso Market, the city’s sprawling fish market. Part two, “Belem to Manaus” shows the boat journey along the Amazon from Belem to Santarem to Manaus that many poor Brazilians take to either find work in the interior or trade in the city markets. This increases the human population in the Amazon, thus driving up the demand for fish, leading to stock depletion. Even when depleted species receive protection, the demand for them still remains high, leading to illegal hunting, further hurt the fish population. Inequality and poverty forces many desperate families to fish illegally. There is a socioeconomic disparity seen in Brazilian cities among skin color. Brazil is an extremely multiethnic country, and the spectrum of skin color varies widely, but the trend overall goes that the lighter the skin, the higher the socioeconomic status. Brazilian residents of favelas generally are darker in skin color than the residents of the city highrises. The favelas have become breeding grounds for crime, and are thus a serious issue for the Brazilian government. The favelas and the overfishing are interconnected by the favelas and poverty, as families residing in favelas generally have more children than better-off Brazilians. This affects population, and maintains the high demand of Amazon fish. 6. Golden Amazon: Deforestation, overfishing, and gold-panning Golden Amazon: Deforestation, overfishing, and gold-panning thoroughly covers the broad range of environmental issues found in the Amazon rainforest. The program begins with the discussion of the whole, illegal logging ring operated by the Brazilian lumber mafia. Next, it discusses the issues with gold-panning and how this is harming water quality. Lastly, The journalists covering the issues had to operate in secrecy to avoid very likely murder by the criminals. They uncovered the disturbing reality that the police hardly ever actively stop the gangsters. In Santarem, for example, a truck was transporting newly harvested lumber through the city in broad daylight, yet the police and local people did nothing to stop it. This “see nothing, do nothing” policy is mainly generated from fear, as the mafia exercises brutality to the highest effect to ensure that people keep their mouths shut. The mafia smuggles the wood by using false bottom crates. In a crate, the legally cut wood remains on top, while, underneath a the false bottom piece is the illegally cut wood. Brazilian logging groups, both legal and illegal, view the Brazilian forests as an asset to exploit, and although sustainable harvesting is arriving to Brazil slower than had hoped, there are some sustainable sawmills and logging companies. One of the only, if not the only example of this is Mill Madereira, a company based out of Manaus, whose economic view is that the lumber business is only sustainable and truly profitable as long as the ecosystem is maintained. When the mill fells a tree, three trees are planted to replace the old one. Also, after the original tree is cut, the area surrounding the tree is studied, so the company can get accurate data about the ecological impacts of felling a tree of a specific species in a certain area. Mill Madereira shows how lumber can be harvested sustainably if companies have the willpower to do it. Overfishing impacts are being felt all across the Amazon. Commercial fishermen target many species. One of their target fish, which happens to at low levels, is the colossal pirarucu. This fish is protected, but as in the logging business, illegal fishing is very prevalent. In the Manaus fish market, illegal pirarucu meat was documented. The vender in that case immediately hid the meat when he was notified of an imminent inspection. Caboclos are the Brazilians who practice sustainable fishing the most. They hunt these fish using a net, harpoon, and club. First, they trap the fish in the nest, then harpoon it in the gills, and lastly repeatedly club until it is unconscious and slowly dies. The caboclo fishermen target only the very largest individuals and even then they just consume them, as they know selling them will only increase the demand for the now-rare leviathan. The last topic which “Golden Amazon” touches is gold-panning and the damage it does to the Amazon ecosystem, especially water quality and metallic leaching. Throughout Brazil, but especially in the northeast, unsustainable gold mines have ravaged the landscape. The most infamous mine in this region, and perhaps the entire country, is Serra Pelada, located in the northeast about 560 kilometers southeast of the Amazon river. This mine saw a roller coaster effect of a boom created by the gold discoveries in the state of Para, then subsequent massive economic stagnation of the region when the gold supplies were severely depleted. Today, the towns which dot the area around the mine are a shadow of their former glory, and political corruption of region does nothing to ameliorate the situation. In addition, the pollution created by the former mining operations is starting to affect the health of the people. The biggest danger comes from the use of mercury in the extraction of gold. In this process, commonly known as amalgamation, mercury is used to separate gold dust from other metals. When the filtration process is finished, most of the wastewater, which is now contaminated with mercury, is usually dumped without any precautions being taken. This damages not just drinking water, but also organisms within the surrounding ecosystem, such as fish. In particular, the fish around the Serra Pelada mine are known to contain high levels of mercury. Consequently, the people living around that area also have higher levels of mercury in their bloodstream than people who live farther away from the mine. The quicksilver water also leaches into the local groundwater supply, which has even more serious and long-lasting consequences than the contamination of waterways. Groundwater contamination contaminates aquifers, which are an additional source of drinking water which people rely on. Once an aquifer is contaminated, it is extremely expensive to purify, so many communities would not be able to purify their water and probably move to other locations, which would put strains on the resources of those regions. In each of the three discussed scenarios, the problems can all be traced in part to lax government oversight in the private sector and lack of encouragement for businesses to exercise responsible and sustainable practices. Overfishing still plagues the Amazon region thanks to the lax inspection protocols which would stop, or at least deter overfishing and fishing of illegal species. The same can be set of the gold mining industry. Some form of government management would mandate mining companies to safely dispose of the mercury water and use mining strategies which don’t threaten the surrounding ecosystems, geology, and water table. Illegal logging remains a problem in the region from somewhat different issues. Because the Amazon rainforest is the most biologically diverse region on Earth, identifying and assessing the condition of every single arboreal species can be difficult to say the least. Therefore, species which are actually in grave danger of extinction from overexploitation might be classified as having a stable population and vice versa. In this scenario, increased cooperation between the federal authorities, regional and local municipalities, and both private and public non-profit organization to allow for proper monitoring of species. Most importantly, all three groups should start a long-term strategy for encouraging sustainable logging practices. An incentive package containing such benefits as tax reduction would likely be very effective. It is important to point out though that simply these solutions can cure the environmental issues discussed in the program. As discussed in the previous blog entry, there are numerous socioeconomic factors associated with the current Amazon environmental issues. Fighting poverty and current social inequality are instrumental in this step, as it will mean that these people will be less likely to become fiscally desperate and possibly commit environmental crimes. 8. Climate change and the Amazon Basin The program Brazil: The Rebellious Amazon examines the effects of climate change on the Amazon basin. Flooding is the primary concern, and how flooding damages the caboclo way of life and how this in turn is contributing to the ecological pressures seen across the Amazon. The area the documentary focuses on is are the three lakes of Aramai, Itarim, and Pacoval. These lakes are located on the large Amazon island of Ilha Grande do Tapará, at the convergence of the Amazon and Tapajos rivers, and so are extremely ecologically diverse and geographically significant. The main caboclo community is Igarape do Costa. The climatic changes seen in the area of the three lakes are mainly coming from the changes in the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Because of a warming ocean, the El Niño events are much stronger than usual, and have more pronounced effects. In the area of Igarape specifically, the El Niño is making the dry seasons much shorter and wetter than usual. In addition, the adverse condition, La Niña, is made far more intense, and significant flooding impacts the region during this time. Because of the shorter dry season, water is not lost and flooding continues to plague the lives of the caboclos much longer than usual. Normally, the flooding of Ilha do Tapara begins in November, when the wet season begins, and ends in March (the beginning of the dry season).But climate change, along with other factors, has strongly exacerbated the situation. These other factors include the Amazon deforestation, which causes soil runoff and increased flooding. Normally, the wet season is one of heavy, but regular, flooding. But now, thanks to La Niña, weather patterns are quite erratic and year-long, so the floods are worse and long-lasting. The soil runoff creates large areas of shallow water, which creates banzeros, large waves caused by storm surges. For the caboclos, the wet season normally is a time of productivity and relief from the dry season, in spite of the flooding. The abundance of rain and accelerated plant growth feeds the livestock of caboclo families. But because of the increased, year-round rainfall, the high water levels are wreaking havoc on the caboclo stilt-houses. The banzero waves are especially dangerous. In addition, the soil runoff has caused fish populations to decline. This hurts the caboclos significantly, as for many of the families, fishing is their livelihood and many of the species which they hunt are already threatened by overexploitation. The alterations that climate change and the shifting ENSO patterns is bringing out will continue for many decades to come, regardless of what actions are taken. Reduction of fossil fuel emissions will only reduce the severity of the situation, not stop it altogether. If that is not done, the caboclos will have to undergo massive climate mitigation to deal with the flooding. This task is an undertaking which some caboclo communities will not be able to accomplish on their own. Intervention by outside parties would be required, possibly on a large scale. Needless to say, this would be quite difficult given the tens of thousands of caboclos spread across the Amazon and the general isolation of each of their towns. In the end, the most likely scenario would be that there would be emigration of many, but not all, caboclos from the rivers to the large settlements and cities. This would put further pressure on the living conditions there.
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Andy Jay CrossSustainability major at Stockton University ArchivesCategories |