 From left: Homero (Luiz Homero Gomes Pereira, field assistant), Patrícia Medici and Paulo Mangini (veterinarian) after the project's third tapir, "Docinho," was released (January 22, 1998). |
PATRÍCIA MEDICI Project title: Conservation Biology of the Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) at Morro do Diabo State Park - Forestry Institute of São Paulo State |
[Go to Part 2]
Patrícia, in Brazil you call tapirs "antas," is that right?
Yes, that's right.
Do most of the local people know what they are?
Most know what a tapir is and can recognize one. Sometimes, people in the big cities don't know about tapirs, but here in the countryside of São Paulo State everybody knows at least a little bit about our animals.
The reason I asked, is that where the mountain tapirs live they aren't always known.
Yes, Diego Lizcano, a researcher from Colombia, told me about that when I met him at the conference in Bolivia recently!
Generally, what is the local attitude toward tapirs?
The tapir is the biggest mammal that we have here in Brazil, so most of the people have some kind of respect for it. In Laury Cullen's thesis - I'll talk more about that later - he analyzed the impact of hunting in some forest fragments of our region. He concluded that the tapirs aren't the preferred game meat of the hunters. They prefer deer, the two species of peccary, armadillos and agoutis. After these come the tapir. Most of the hunters said the tapir is too big to be transported out of the forest, so they prefer to take smaller animals. Hunting does affect the tapirs, but they are not the most sought-after animal.
When we caught our most recent tapir for collaring (we named her "Docinho"), we waited to release her until she was well recovered from the anesthetic, and when the air was a little cooler. It was really hot that day. So, the animal spent a few aditional hours in the pitfall trap. People in the town (the family of one of my field assistants) came to the park to see her, and I felt that everybody was amazed about her. We organized groups of two at a time to go to the hole, very silent, to observe Docinho, and most of them kept asking me to see a little bit more. They were fascinated by the tapir in the hole.
When I tell people I work with tapirs, they usually ask me many questions, and I always answer all of them. Last November, a news story was written about my work, and two TV stations came here to shoot film for the news. The project is already famous around here, everybody knows about it. Sometimes people stop me in the streets to tell me they saw me on TV. It's funny! Many people have asked me to take them to the forest to see the tapirs. In other words, I think that the most important problem here is the loss of habitat. Hunting is also a problem, but it's not as significant. When I say loss of habitat I'm talking about the small forest fragments that are suffering the effects of the landless people settling around them.
Do you have to convince people that saving tapirs is worthwhile?
I have to convince them it's worth saving the tapirs' habitat.
Do people tend to think of the tapirs as food, as a problem to farmers, or as interesting and valuable wildlife?
As I mentioned before, hunting is not a significant problem for tapirs here. People don't really think of them as food. Sometimes they're seen as a problem to farmers since we know they leave the forest to feed on crops, but they don't cause a significant loss to the farmers. At the same time, they are not seen as interesting and valuable wildlife, either. People here don't usually think of tapirs and wildlife in those terms. So, we have two different points to work on in our education program. We need to create a concern for the value of wildlife, and also to convince the people that it's important to conserve the habitat.
Do the laws of Brazil or the state of São Paulo protect tapirs? Are the laws generally enforced?
In Brazil we have laws to protect the animals. If someone is found with one illegally, the sentence is from six months to a year in jail. That's the law, but it's not enforced.
How would you describe your work?
I'm a Forest Engineer. I got my degree at São Paulo University; I've been working in the area of wildlife management and conservation for the past six years. I work for an institution called IPÊ - Ecological Research Institute - which is a Brazilian NGO. In Portuguese, it's called "Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas."
What is the main function of IPÊ?
It's a non-profit organization that works for the conservation of biodiversity in several Brazilian ecosystems. IPÊ's conservation work is of critical importance, considering the country's rich biodiversity and the need to work towards its conservation. IPÊ's mission is: "The conservation of life and its diversity in Brazil."
IPÊ's central office at Nazaré Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil (1996).
Is it headquartered in the city of São Paulo?
The organization was created in 1992 in Piracicaba, São Paulo. Its headquarters has recently moved to Nazaré Paulista, a beautiful site located only one and a half hours from the city of São Paulo. Although most of IPÊ's projects are in the Atlantic Forests of the State of São Paulo, it has been active in many parts of Brazil. IPÊ’s objectives include:
IPÊ has several international partners: Wildlife Preservation Trusts, which include the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust-UK, Wildlife Preservation Trust International-USA and Wildlife Preservation Trust Canada; we are also partners with the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), a consortium for conservation composed of Columbia University, the New York Botanical Garden, Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History and Wildlife Preservation Trust International. IPÊ was chosen as CERC’s representative in Brazil.
- conducting research on rare and endangered species and implementing conservation management plans to integrate wild and captive-bred animals using re-introductions and translocation techniques;
- promoting environmental education programs among local communities;
- working with local landowners to convert their forest fragments into protected areas or private reserves;
- promoting training for professionals in conservation biology;
- restoring, regenerating and reconstructing habitat for endangered species.
What part do you play in the organization's work?
Right now I'm conducting three different projects. I coordinate the Black Lion Tamarin Project in Pontal do Paranapanema region in the extreme west of São Paulo State, the Tapir Project in Morro do Diabo State Park - same region - and a project with the Landless People Movement, which consists of an integration between environmental conservation and the agrarian reform that's taking place in the Pontal do Paranapanema.
How did you get started working with tapirs?
Well, after college - we call it "the faculty" - I started working for IPÊ on the Black Lion Tamarin Project under the direction of Claudio Valladares Padua, a Brazilian primatologist. This was in January, 1996. After some time, I realized that I would be able to develop another project that was an old dream for me. I was always interested in ungulates, especially tapirs, because I always saw those animals as the key species of the rainforest. Claudio and the people at IPÊ also had an interest in conducting a tapir project, and we spent a year raising funds. By August, 1996, we received money from the Brazilian government (FNMA - Fundo Nacional do Meio Ambiente), and we started working.
Had your schooling prepared you for this?
Ever since I got into the Faculty, I'd had the intention of working with wildlife. During that period (6 years), I participated in many different projects as a trainee and I took many different courses in the subject. When I finished the Faculty I got a job conducting the tamarin project. My fascination with wildlife and working in the field just continued to grow.
What was it about field work that caught your attention?
When you're doing field work, you're always asking more and more questions, and you're also looking for the answers. Tapirs have made me curious from the very beginning, mainly because we don't know that much about them. Also, as I mentioned before, ungulates are key species in the rainforest. If we can understand these animals and answer some of the questions about them, we can begin to understand the rainforest as it really is - its dynamics, its fauna and its flora.
How does your work fit into this picture?
I feel like I have so much work to do. So much work. IPÊ has a big team working towards conservation here in the Pontal do Paranapanema Region, each one working on a different project. The tapir project is just a small part of a regional work, but it's already getting the community involved. We are the only institution working towards conservation in the region and we feel that our work is getting known. We are talking more to the people. In January, 1998, we began an environmental education program for the local community; we began telling the people who we are, telling them about IPÊ, what we are doing, what our projects are. We began teaching them what conservation means and what they could do to help us. We are working with the landless people, and that's really important because most of the forest fragments of the region are located close to settlements with at least 100 families.
With that many people near the smaller fragments of forest, it must be hard to protect the wildlife.
The population of tapirs in Morro do Diabo State Park, which has 35,000 hectares of Atlantic Forest, is well protected, but we're worried about the populations in the smaller forest fragments spread around Pontal. The only really big forest fragment in the Pontal do Paranapanema region is Morro do Diabo State Park. We need to pay attention to the small fragments. So, these will be the focus of the next phase of our project. We need to study the animal populations in them, thinking about the establishment of corridors between the park and the fragments.
You've mentioned the Landless People Movement. What's that about?
The landless people are very poor people fighting for a piece of land to plant, produce and survive. Agrarian reform is taking place here and all over Brazil. It's not because the government promotes it, it's happening because there is a movement called the Landless People Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, or MST). Here is a part of Laury Cullen's thesis where he discusses this. You can see how important it is to the tapirs and other wildlife, as well as to the people of Brazil:
The Struggle for Land in the
Pontal do Paranapanema Region in Brazil:
As in many other countries in Laitn America, the struggle for land is determining the fate of forests. Brazil is the world's ninth largest economy and has abundant natural resources. However, next to Paraguay, Brazil has the most uneven distribution of land in the world. The top 2% of the lanowners own 44% of the land and the poorest 67% only own 6% of the land. This skewed land ownership in Brazil is being confronted by the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra). The MST is the largest Brazilian social movement of this century and won the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. Their objectives are land, agrarian reform and a just society. The only government census of rural workers was in 1985 and it counted 4.8 million people waiting for a parcel of land.
Colonization of the Pontal do Paranapanema Region is politically and economically rooted and has made this region well known for the inequalities of land distribution - 8% of the farms in the region enclose 72% of the land. Because of obscure land ownerships and speculative purposes, Pontal do Paranapanema is recognized as an area of violent conflicts and intense land disputes. Ironically, 40% of these farms are considered under-used (terras ociosas) according to INCRA (National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform).
Today, the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) has around 5,000 families camped in the Pontal region waiting for a piece of land. Recently, MST has increasingly used land invasions to remedy the intense land concentration among the rich. Typically, after waiting in vain for the land agency to fulfill its promises to redistribute unused properties, the MST brings together a convoy of tractors that leads to a squatter invasion at night. The strategy is that by dawn there will be so many people in occupation that the police will be unable to dislodge them.
The intense land disputes in the region and the increasing concentration of landless rural workers migrating to the region in the hope of obtaining a piece of land has prompted the State and the local owners of large tracts of land to engage in a process of "ownership negotiation." Put simply, this negotiation requires the farmer to donate 30% to 70% of his cleared land to the landless workers, in exchange for the legal and official title to the rest of his property. This negotiation process results in at least one quarter of the farmer's land being officially and permanently transferred to the landless workers. These rural workers then establish family-size (average = 10 hectares) Glebas Rurais, or agricultural plots.
Forest Fragments and the Landless People.
What happens to the Atlantic forest fragments when the large landowners gain legal and official possession of their property from the State and the rural workers gain possession of a piece of land? As mentioned earlier, the majority of these forest remnants are small reserves on private land. Some of these fragments were left standing in obedience to the law, which requires large farmers to leave 20% of their land covered with original forests.
Currently, the law protects forest fragments and no further cutting or use is allowed. During the original establishment of most of these large farms, forest patches were intentionally left in areas where the soil was poorest. Landowners cleared the forest in places where soil conditions were more favorable for cropping and raising cattle. In turn, forest fragments remained in marginal lands where soil conditions were less favorable for agriculture.
As stated earlier, today these large landowners are donating a tract of their cleared land to the landless families in exchange for legal land ownership. However, these landless families are being donated only tracts of these marginal lands, normally at the edge of the forest fragments. The dishonesty during the "negotiation" process between the State and the landowners is allowing most of the private forests to stand, but is making the landless farmers live next to forest patches on marginal lands and unproductive soils. Thus, the common scenario in the region today is peasant communities living and farming on the edge of these last remaining forest fragments.
Cullen Jr., L. Hunting and Biodiversity in Atlantic Forest Fragments, São Paulo, Brazil. A Thesis presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. University of Florida. 134 pages. 1997.
In his thesis he's comparing five different forest fragments, each with a different level of hunting, in terms of hunting impact. Morro do Diabo State Park is considered to have zero hunting, and a smaller fragment of 1800 hectares close to a large settlement is considered to have the most hunting pressure. The abstract and some of the results of his thesis are on the Internet. He did a very good job. It's a beautiful thesis.
What is your involvement with the Landless People Movement?
I'm coordinating a project which will integrate environmental conservation in the Pontal do Paranapanema region and the agrarian reform that is taking place here. Last weekend, we signed a partnership with the Landless People Movement to establish a native plant nursery in one of the settlements. We've also discussed educational projects with them. Last year I managed to get some money from the city of Teodoro Sampaio (our nearest town) and I contracted Luiz Carlos Beduschi to coordinate an environmental education program for the local community, including people in the city and also in the rural areas (landless people). His work started at the beginning of this year. He's an agronomist and environmental educator from the University of São Paulo where I studied, and now he's living here with us. He has a lot of energy and I think he'll be able to reach most of the people in the community.
Continue to Part 2
