Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/060892/0608332.000

Text File | 1992-10-19 | 3KB | 70 lines

                                                                                ENVIRONMENT, Page 77

Where Mankind and Nature Get Along


    On the border between Brazil and Bolivia is a rare place
where people profit from nature without destroying it. Called the
Pantanal, it is a giant freshwater wetland that covers 140,000
sq km (54,000 sq. mi.). Unlike Brazil's other three great
ecosystems -- the Atlantic forests, the Amazon and the plain
called the Cerrado -- the Pantanal has not yet suffered grievous
damage at the hand of man. Even more amazing, it retains some
of the densest concentrations of wildlife in the Americas,
despite the fact that settlers have worked cattle ranches in the
area for more than 200 years.

    On the pastures surrounding the ponds and marshes of the
Pantanal, herds of capybaras, the world's largest rodents, munch
on the native grasses. Hyacinth macaws, the world's largest
parrots, nest in trees and crack palm seeds disgorged by cattle,
which eat the fruit around the nut. According to Charles Munn,
an ornithologist with Wildlife Conservation International, the
cattle fill a niche formerly occupied by extinct giant sloths,
which dined on palm seeds thousands of years before the first
Portuguese settlers arrived. This happy coincidence is one
reason why humans here get along with the 80 species of mammals,
230 kinds of fish, 650 different birds and 1,100 types of
butterflies.

    Also working in the Pantanal's favor is the
inaccessibility of the central core of the huge floodplain. The
enormous, uninhabited wetlands provide a refuge where animals
can retreat from hunting and other human intrusions. Munn notes
that the area has survived deforestation in large sections of
its watershed and that the effects of industrialization in the
surrounding states have so far been minimal. "If this glass is
half empty," he says, surveying the wild diversity of wading
birds, flycatchers and kingfishers feeding at the flooded edge
of a pasture, "I can't imagine what it would look like full."

    The region does face threats. According to Nilson de
Barros, president of the Society for the Defense of the
Pantanal, the rivers that feed into its marshes are being
polluted by gold mining, deforestation and agriculture. To feed
cattle herds, some ranchers are planting exotic grasses that
threaten the delicate balance of the ecosystem. Wild-animal
dealers are going after such items as rare birds and capybara
skins. But De Barros believes the problems will be kept under
control. He stresses that the Pantaneiros have traditionally
respected the area's riches, and they are beginning to realize
that their home has great potential for ecotourism.

    As humanity paves over, logs and plows under forests and
fields around the world, the crucial question for the biosphere
is whether people can make peace with nature beyond the
boundaries of the patchwork of parks and protected areas, which
cover less than 1% of the globe. Through a combination of
respect for the land and luck, the Pantaneiros have shown that
this might be possible. At the headquarters of the huge Novo
Miranda Ranch, manager Ito Menezes says, "The Pantanal has
always vanquished human attempts to mess it up."

    By Eugene Linden