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Ecologists trying to restore Brazil's dwindled Atlantic Forest
MAQUINE, Brazil, Feb 25: High in a tangle of creepers and branches in the Atlantic Forest. Maria Luiza Klippert strikes "green gold" — the fruit of a heart-of-palm tree, reports AP.
It has taken Klippert. a geneticist, several days to find a fertile heart-of-palm. a once plentiful but now dwindling species prized for a soft, rich core that is often served in salads.
Using long shears. Klippert prunes hundreds of red fruits that contain the precious seeds she needs to grow new heart-of-palms. Then she climbs down a ladder 30 feet (9 metres) to the forest floor to gather her catch.
"As long as there's a seed, there's hope for a species." she says. "Now we can reproduce the heart-of-palm. and. with some luck, use them to regenerate the Atlantic Forest."
The seeds will go to Brazil's first "endangered tree bank" — a laboratory where scientists will reproduce species nearly wiped out by encroaching loggers, farmers and miners.
The tree bank is the centerpiece of an unusual World Bank project aimed at restoring Brazil's Atlantic Forest, one of the world's most diverse — and endangered — ecosystems.
The Ecological Corridor Project is to link pockets of surviving Atlantic Forest in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul with "corridors" of new forest regrown with na-tiveplant and tree species.
The corridors will connect patches of public and private land that are registered as "ecological protection zones" for tax breaks, said Daniel Gross, a task force manager for World Bank environmental projects.
The 1.28 million dollars project represents a major shift in World Bank funding away from immense projects drawn up by federal bureaucrats to smaller programmes designed and implemented by scientists in the field.
The Atlantic Forest is, indeed. running out of time and trees.
When Portuguese explorers arrived In 1500, the wilderness spanned 4,500 square miles (11,700 square kilometres) along Brazil's eastern seaboard. It covered 40 per cent of what is now Rio Grande do Bui state.
Over the years, loggers, ranchers and farmers gnawed at the forest. And the more it shrank, the faster it was devastated. Between 1985 and 1990, government studies showed the Atlantic Forest was razed at a
rate of 13 football fields an hour.
Today, just 3 per cent of the original forest remains nationwide. In Rio Grande do Sul. a breadbasket built on cattle ranching and farming, just 2.3 per cent is left.
Paradoxically, the more the Atlantic Forest disappears, the more scientists discover how biologically rich it is. In November, botanists in Bahia state discovered 476 types of trees in a 2.5 acre (one hectare) plot — a record for biodiversity.
A federal law was passed several years ago prohibiting logging of the forest, but enforcement was spotty and money was always short.
Then in 1995, the World Bank made 65 million dollars available for ecological programmes in Brazil. This time, it asked the federal government to
solicit project ideas frofh Brazil's 26 states.
To qualify for funds, each state was required to show it had environmental laws, an enforcement arm to punish offenders and a budget that was increasing outlays for ecological protection.
Starting in March, biologists will test each batch of seeds for 10 months before germinating them, said Alan Cirino Rodrigues, director of the centre.
This year. 18 species will be stored at th® bank, including coveted trees like the grandi-uva, guapuruvu, acoita-cavalo, canjerana, ipe-amarelo and inga-feijao.
The project expects to produce at least 180,000 saplings the first year and triple that by 1999, Rodrigues said.
Some of those saplings will be put into fruit orchards and hardwood groves. These projects will help employ locals and deter loggers from cutting trees in protected zones. Klip: pert said.
The project will also provide municipalities with free saplings for parks, sidewalks and hilly residential areas plagued by soil erosion, and offer farmers 30 tons of organic fertilizers a year.
In addition to tax breaks, private landowners who permit the state to reforest their lands will receive "ecotourlsm" licenses and be allowed to attend courses on how to farm without burning down trees.
The locals have to see some benefit." Klippert said. "What good are rare, beautiful trees around communities of jobless people?"