U.S. Rancher Aims for Amazon Buffer--Private Nature Reserve
11/5/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: U.S. rancher aims for Amazon buffer
Goal is to protect forest, natives from loggers, squatters
Source: MSNBC
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 5, 1999
Byline: Jennifer Rich
MATO GROSSO, Brazil, Nov. 5 - In the flickering campfire, a tight
circle of sun-baked Kamaiura Indians patiently lighted eight-inch
long cigarettes they had just rolled from store-bought tobacco and
leaves off of Amazonian trees. The old, painted men sat quietly while
John Carter talked, shifting only periodically to get closer to the
fire to warm their naked backsides.
WHEN CARTER was finished, all of the men began murmuring at once in
their native Tupi, talking over the announcement that he had just
made. All of a sudden, the murmuring stopped, and Marcelo, the
designated translator for the tribe, said, in Portuguese: "They agree
with what you have said and think that you should do all that you can
to see that the project works."
Carter, a 34-year-old U.S. cattle rancher, had come to the Kamaiura
village in Brazil's Xingu National Park to talk to the Indians about
his plans to buy a tract of 270 square miles of virgin Amazon forest
abutting the reservation's western boundary.
Carter wants to turn the land into a private nature reserve,
supported by an international scientific research facility that would
serve as a base for studies of biodiversity and local indigenous
groups. In doing so, he hopes to provide a buffer zone to protect the
Indians from the march of civilization.
"Ten years from now, the only forest left will be inside this park,"
Carter told the Indians. "We need to protect the border now so there
will be no way for people to take it from you."
ONLY WAY?
Buying land for preservation is a relatively new phenomenon in
Brazil. Only a small group of environmental organizations - such as
the Nature Conservancy and Conservation International - have tried,
often through local environmental groups. But as sustainable
development pilot programs continue to return questionable results,
people like Carter believe that private reserves are the only way to
assure that there will be some forest left standing in 20 years.
"Ask anybody - anybody - in this area if they think that there is
any way to stop the destruction and they will tell you no," Carter
said. "It's gotten too far out of control."
To the 14 tribes that live on the 12,000 square mile Xingu
reservation, Carter's protection plan comes as a welcome surprise.
Their land, in the northeastern corner of Mato Grosso state, used to
be deep in middle of the unforgiving Amazonian wilderness as recently
as 10 years ago.
But now that the government-subsidized "advance of progress" has
wiped out most of the state's natural resources to make way for
agriculture and cattle ranching, clandestine loggers have already
started to penetrate into the reservation's protected boundaries
looking for virgin forest.
Commercial fishermen have also been caught hauling away tons of fish
at a time from the reservation's rivers. For most of the local
tribes, who rely on fish as a staple in their diet, the poachers
represent a threat to their survival.
UP TO $15 MILLION NEEDED
That is where Carter comes in. When he and his Brazilian wife Kika
moved here in 1996 to run her family's cattle ranch, they were
alarmed at how quickly the surrounding land was being deforested. In
searching for a way to help preserve the wildlife, they met the
Kamaiuras and learned of the virgin forest for sale nearby. With the
support of a group of U.S. businessmen, Carter is now trying to raise
the $10 million to 15 million needed to purchase the initial 270
square-mile plot. He eventually hopes to raise enough money to buy up
all of the ranches along the western border of the Xingu.
Compared to the United States, virgin land in the Amazon is dirt
cheap. Depending on the location of the parcel, a hectare, or about
two football fields, could go for $100 to $300. In comparison, the
U.S. government and the state of California recently paid $125,000 a
hectare to protect a 3,000-hectare plot of redwoods in Humboldt
County.
LAND FOR SALE
And unlike the United States, there are still enormous areas of
virgin land available. In the 1970s, the Brazilian government
provided massive incentives for companies and wealthy businessmen to
buy tracts of land in the Amazon for agriculture and cattle ranching.
Many of the properties extended more than 500 square miles. The new
buyers soon learned, though, that the remoteness of the areas and the
poor quality of the soil made the land virtually unusable.
As a result, most of those properties are now up for sale. But a key
obstacle to conservation purchases has been that even if a rancher
wants to sell his virgin forest for preservation, he has no idea who
to turn to because there isn't anybody around to ask. The only people
that come knocking on the ranchers' doors, with lots of money in
their pockets, are the loggers.
"We are in a situation where the only people bidding for the resource
are the people who want to cut it down," said Dick Rice, Chief
Economist at Conservation International's Center for Applied
Biodiversity Science.
OWNERSHIP ISSUES
Another obstacle is that years of shady land dealings means that
often properties have multiple titles. Finding the true legal owner
of the land could involve years of litigation.
"Mato Grosso is full of paper," said one local landowner, with a
smile. "If you claim to own some land, people usually ask what level
your title is in the stack."
And once the land is purchased, the work doesn't end there. Often,
people need to be physically present on the land to prevent it from
being invaded by illegal timber extractors or squatters. Under
Brazilian law, once a squatter can prove that he is living off the
land - something as basic has a mango tree bearing fruit - he can't
be forced to leave.
For more remote areas, the danger of an invasion is less likely. But
according to the Brazilian government's development plans, some day
even the farthest reaches of the forest will have a road running
nearby.
OTHER STRATEGIES URGED
That's why many environmentalists say that private nature reserves
are helpful, but only a Band-Aid for a much larger problem.
"In terms of making a difference for Brazil, that is one of the
strategies, but it is not enough," said Lawrence Pinder, director of
the Pantanal region at The Nature Conservancy in Brazil. "Because of
the size of the country, there needs to be a much more unified
effort."
For Carter, though, who divided his childhood between a cattle ranch
in San Antonio and the woods of Tennessee, hiking through his own
little piece of the Amazon would be a dream come true.
"If I could make this work," Carter said. "I would devote the rest of
my life to it."