The Chocolate Forest of Brazil


Brazil Country Profile - Feature

For a time, the word cocoa was synonymous with money in the southern part of Bahia. Since the plant was introduced from the Amazon, it brought wealth and power to the lucky few who owned vast plantations.
To build their plantations, vast stretches of the unique Atlantic Forest were cut. But since cocoa plants needed shade, pockets of the original forest were preserved for the future. That is, until world prices for cocoa collapsed.




By Paulo Lyra


B


AHIA, Brazil - For many years high prices and increasing chocolate consumption all over the world have helped to conserve patches of primal Atlantic Forests amid the region's vast cocoa plantations. However, the steep fall in cocoa prices may signal the end of these forests.


Environmental organizations such as WWF­World Wide Fund For Nature, are taking emergency measures to save these patches of native forest in the southern part of this state. According to recent studies, these remnants contain the planet's greatest diversity of trees.


The Atlantic Forest of Brazil is unique and quite distinct from the much more extensive Amazonian Forest in the northwest. Once stretching nearly continuously along the Atlantic coast of Brazil, it is now the country's most endangered ecosystem.


This part of Brazil was the first to be colonized and has developed into the industrial heart of the country. Only eight per cent of the original forest cover remains and probably less than one per cent is primary forest.


Agriculture was largely responsible for that loss, but there have been exceptions - the south of Bahia, which divides the Brazilian coastline into two, has not changed much.


Around the 1930s, Brazil's cocoa production was largely in the hands of a few landowners with plantations of 10,000 hectares each. As the demand for cocoa increased, more and more forests were converted into plantations.


The hot, damp weather, good soil, and abundance of forests made the region ideal for cocoa, a plant that originally came from the Amazon. Brazil soon became the world's second largest cocoa producer, after the Côte d'Ivoire.


Interestingly enough, as cocoa plantations expanded, portions of the Atlantic Forest were preserved since cocoa plants need the shade of larger trees in order to grow.


But the forests in the neighbouring areas considered inappropriate for cocoa crops were quickly felled to be sold as timber and the land was converted for cattle raising.


During the 1960s, a ton of cocoa was worth US$2,000. A steady increase in cocoa prices contributed to creating an affluent society. Its economic and cultural importance was acknowledged throughout Brazil to the point that the word "cocoa" became widely synonymous with "money". By the end of the 1970s, a ton of cocoa was valued at US$5,000 in the world market.


Despite the conversion of the forests into farms and cocoa plantations, the diversity of wildlife remains high. A survey by the New York Botanical Gardens reveals that the Atlantic Forest has the highest diversity of trees in the world. Scientists have found 450 different species of trees in one hectare of the Atlantic Forest - the highest recorded diversity of species found in a single hectare of land anywhere in the world.


In the southern part of Bahia, a coastal strip 200 kilometres long and 70 kilometres wide is the remaining native habitat for many endangered species like Wied's marmoset and the thin­spined porcupine. Its rarest animal, however, is the golden­headed lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysomelas) - a small primate of outstanding beauty symbolizing the richness of the Atlantic Forests' wildlife.


But as world prices for cocoa collapsed starting in 1986, southern Bahia was plunged into economic crisis. Farmers who once preserved their patches of the AtlanticForest started logging them for sale of timber. Although a 1990 government ban on logging in the Atlantic Forest initially closed many sawmills, logging is again on the rise.


"Given these conditions, we doubt the possibility of survival for the pockets of the Atlantic Forest within the cocoa farms," said Dr Keith Alger, vice­president of the Pau Brasil Foundation, a local non­governmental organization, and a researcher on the cocoa economic crisis. "There is evidence that the disinterested conservation of the forest by the landowners is coming to an end."


The situation became worsened 1989 with the appearance of the Witches Broom, a fungal disease which is the scourge of cocoa in the Amazon. To stop the spread of the disease, the infected trees had to be cut with disastrous consequences for cocoa production. The disease was also a threat to native trees. The situation required prompt action by environmental organizations.


In 1990, the Pau Brasil Foundation began an environmental education programme to encourage the region's inhabitants, including farmers, to value the local animal and plant species. Also, a screening centre was established for the golden­headed lion tamarin monkeys, which were confiscated from traders or private collectors and reintroduced into the wild.


Fortunately, the largest remaining stretch of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil has been declared the Una Federal Biological Reserve. WWF has been supporting the establishment of this reserve since 1985 (Project BR0018: Atlantic Forest Integrated Conservation and Development) as a first step towards a more comprehensive conservation effort.


The reserve covers a total area of 11,400 hectares. Initially, IBAMA, the federal agency responsible for the reserve, was only able to buy 5,342 hectares. The remainder was in private ownership and had been invaded by squatters.


In subsequent years, thanks to funds from WWF and other donors, squatters moved and released their claim on 1,352 hectares of the reserve. Another 649 hectares were bought. The land was immediately transferred to IBAMA, whose staff played a decisive role in the operation.


This resulted in a new model of international, local government, and NGO cooperation for resolving land tenure problems in parks and reserves. It has also encouraged other institutions to raise funds for the Una reserve.


Recently, a group of NGOs have helped IBAMA to incorporate an additional 1,100 hectares into the Una Reserve. The group included WWF, Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, Wild Preservation Trust­Canada, Brookfield Zoo, Conservation International, and Brazil's Biodiversitas.


Preliminary data suggest that the protection of approximately 8,000 hectares of continuous Atlantic Forest - the current area of 7,059ha plus the addition of another 1,000 hectares - would reduce the probability of extinction of the golden­headed lion tamarin from 3.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent in 100 years.


"These results suggest that the acquisition of that land will be an important step for the animal's conservation in the long­run," says Dr James Dietz, a member of the International Recovery and Management Committee for the golden­headed lion tamarin.


As more land is acquired for the Una Reserve, the cocoa plantations will have to be abandoned and, though the chocolate forest will die out, the native trees of the Atlantic Forest will once again reclaim their land.



Complete List of WWF Projects in Brazil


Expenditure and Budget of Selected WWF Projects





Back to the previous page


Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature