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INDEX

1. First aid for the Amazon: The world's richest nations want to save the rainforests. This time they are putting their money on research and modernisation, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, &' (arch 1))&, *ol.1++ $o.1'1, "age ,& &. The good, the -ad and the green in Amazonia, ./$AT0A$ 1 AR!, $ew %cientist, 12 %eptem-er 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14+, +. "lantation policies for saving trees 5 Review of '$o Tim-er 6ithout Trees: %ustaina-ility in the Tropical Forest' -y !uncan "oore, "eter 1urgess, .ohn "almer, %imon Riet-ergen and Timothy %ynnott, " T R ! 7R//T, $ew %cientist, 3+ Fe-ruary 1))3, *ol.1&2 $o.143& ,. 7enes from a disappearing world: A ma8or international pro8ect to collect !$A fingerprints from the ethnic groups on the verge of e9tinction has touched off a heated de-ate a-out genetics, race and human welfare, R/7 R : 6;$, $ew %cientist, &) (ay 1))+, *ol.1+' $o.1'42 "age &2

over huge areas of rainforest to the local ;ndians, the government is providing the most effective form of conservation for -oth forest and traditional culture, " T R 1=$BAR!, $ew %cientist, 1? !ecem-er 1)'), *ol.1&, $o.1?)2 11. (alaria runs riot on 1razil's wild frontier: The rapid loss of the rainforest is not the only pro-lem facing the Amazon -asin. 1razil is also suffering from a massive epidemic of malaria, %0AR/$ >;$7(A$, $ew %cientist, 1& August 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?44 1&. 1razil, where the ice cream comes from: The way to save the rainforest is to ignore the trees and sell the other fruits on offer. 6hat effect will a conversion to capitalism have on the forest dwellers, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, 34 .uly 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14&, 1+. Amazonia's history of e9ploitation, %T "0 $ $=7 $T, $ew %cientist, 3, August 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14&' 1,. #olom-ia calls on rich to fund forest protection, %T "0A$; "A;$, $ew %cientist, &1 April 1))3, *ol.1&? $o.141+ 12. Rainforests saved -y satellite, $ew %cientist, 1+ April 1))1, *ol.1+3 $o.14?, "age12 1?. Amazonian e9ploits, $ew %cientist, 1& %eptem-er 1))&, *ol.1+2 $o.1'+' "age ' 14. The hidden cost of technology transfer: The developing world demands economic growth. 1ut that is no e9cuse for rich industrial nations to transfer technology destined to -ring social chaos and environmental ruin, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, 3) (ay 1))&, *ol.1+, $o.1'&3 "age +? 1'. Review: Rich e9istence in "reA#olum-ian America, $;#> %A=$! R%, $ew %cientist, &2 April 1))&, *ol.1+, $o.1'1' "age ,& 1). /ur fathers' to9ic sins: For decades we have dumped to9ic chemicals in the soil without a second thought. 1ut there is a rec<oning on the way, 6;::;A( %T;7:;A$; and 6;( %A:/(/$%, $ew %cientist, 11 !ecem-er 1))+, *ol.1,3 $o.1)3+ "age +' &3. Technology: An airship cruise over the Amazon canopy, /(AR %ATTA=R, $ew %cientist, 12 .uly 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?4+ &1. (edicines from the rainforest: The tropics contain thousands of species of plants which could

2. Tal<ing "oint: 7reen light for precautionary science, "A=: ./0$%T/$ and (AR> %;((/$!%, $ew %cientist, 3+ August 1))1, *ol.1+1 $o.14'3 "age , ?. >ill or cure@ Remedies for the rainforest: There is more than one way to save a rainforest. 1ut the many parties that claim to <now which way is -est are at odds with each other, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, 1? %eptem-er 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?'& 4. :ast e9it to the Amazon: Foreign scientists are -eing -anned from the Amazon rainforest A 8ust as they are -eginning to discover the forest's secrets, ! 11; (A#>:;$, $ew %cientist, &4 (ay 1)'), *ol.1&& $o.1??? '. Review: Travels in the other Amazon, "A=: %;(/$%, $ew %cientist, 1' August 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14+3 ). Fruits of the rainforest: ;ce creams, -ody creams, -ath oils and sweets A these are the latest fruits of the rainforest. As new mar<ets develop, fruits and nuts will soon -e worth more than tim-er and the future of the forest will -e more secure, 70;:: A$ "RA$# , $ew %cientist, 1+ .anuary 1))3, *ol.1&2 $o.1?)) 13. 7uardians of the Amazon: Things are loo<ing up in the Amazon forests of #olom-ia. 1y handing

& provide medicines for the future. 1ut as forests disappear, so do the local people who guard their secrets, #0R;% 1;R! and /(AR %ATTA=R, $ew %cientist, 14 August 1))1, *ol.1+1 $o.14'& "age +, &&. AngloA1razilian forest pro8ects mar< climate of cooperation, ! 11; (A#>:;$, $ew %cientist, 1, /cto-er 1)'), *ol.1&, $o.1?'? &+. Amazon people get forest home at last, $ew %cientist, +3 $ovem-er 1))1, *ol.1+& $o.14)4 "age 12 &,. !iversity is a dou-leAedged sword, . FF 0 #0T, $ew %cientist, 12 .uly 1))2, *ol.1,4 $o.1)'? "age 1) &2. Amazon rescue plan stirs political row, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, 34 !ecem-er 1))1, *ol.1+& $o.14)' "age 12 &?. :ogging rainforests the natural way@: Those who wish to e9ploit rainforests usually destroy them. /ne answer may -e to e9tract tim-er in a way that mimics the natural destruction which is inherent in a rainforest's life cycle, $;#> 1R/6$ and (A:#/:( "R %%, $ew %cientist, 1, (arch 1))&, *ol.1++ $o.1'1& "age &2 &4. 0ell's highway: "lans to turn one of %outh America's ma8or waterways into a grand shipping canal have provo<ed a storm of environmental protests, RA"0A : 0 AT0, $ew %cientist, 3+ .une 1))2, *ol.1,? $o.1)'3 "age && &'. %eeds of our own destruction: arth is e9periencing a mass e9tinction of species on a par with the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, -ut this time asteroids and comets have nothing to do with it, %T=ART ";((, $ew %cientist, 3' April 1))2, *ol.1,? $o.1)4& "age +1 &). /il prospectors pose threat to Amazon's ancient tri-es, /liver Tic<ell, $ew %cientist, 31 .une 1))?, *ol.123 $o.&3+& "age 1& +3. Forum: 7ive the multinationals a -rea<C A ;llA informed criticism of their role in the rainforests could -e counterproductive, 70;:: A$ "RA$# , $ew %cientist, &+ %eptem-er 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?'+ +1. %olutions to soil erosion, ./0$ T0/R$ %, $ew %cientist, 3+ .une 1)'), *ol.1&& $o.1??4 +&. AAA%: #lues to Amazonia's watery past, !A$ #0AR: %, !A*;! !;#>%/$ and #0R;%T/"0 R ./B# , $ew %cientist, 3+ (arch 1))3, *ol.1&2 $o.143? ++. Rainforest rescue plan, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, &1 !ecem-er 1))1, *ol.1+& $o.1'33 "age 4 +,. 6orld 1an< pro8ects punished the poor, FR ! " AR# , $ew %cientist, 1' .uly 1))&, *ol.1+2 $o.1'+3 "age 2 +2. Amazon nations name their price, 1R;A$ 0/( 6//!, $ew %cientist, &) Fe-ruary 1))&, *ol.1++ $o.1'13 "age 12 +?. $oah's new challenge: !eciding which species and ha-itats to save in a world teeming with candidates is a nightmare. Reports on the struggle to ma<e conservation more scientific, 1/1 0/:( %, $ew %cientist, 14 .une 1))2, *ol.1,? $o.1)'& "age ++

Features $ew %cientist, &' (arch 1))&, *ol.1++ $o.1'1, "age ,&

First aid for the Amazon: The world's richest nations want to save the rainforests. This time they are putting their money on research and modernisation FR ! " AR#
;t was 0elmut >ohl's idea. ;n the summer of 1))3, the 7erman chancellor proposed to his fellow 6estern leaders at a 7roup of %even summit in 0ouston a plan to save the world's rainforests. They should start, he said, with the 1razilian Amazon. /ther leaders, such as 7eorge 1ush and (argaret Thatcher, were ta<en a-ac<, -ut could hardly veto the idea at a time when they pu-licly shared the worldwide concern a-out the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. ';t was sprung on us,' remem-ers one of the senior uropean civil servants. '>ohl wanted to -e seen to -e green. 1ut the pro8ect's scope and funding were not discussed at the summit, and there had -een no prior discussion with the 1razilian government.' The newly elected 1razilian president Fernando #ollor de (ello ignored local governments within 1razilian rainforest states A such as "ar and Amazonia, who claimed that the international community wanted to ta<e control of the Amazon A and -egan tal<s with officials from the 6orld 1an< and the uropean #ommunity to flesh out the grand vision, <nown as the "ilot "ro8ect for the 1razilian Amazon. $o-ody thought much of 1razil's shopping list of pro8ects, which carried a price tag of D1.2 -illion. 'The 1razilians treated the pro8ect as a -lan< cheEue. They chuc<ed everything into the pot,' said one 6orld 1an< official involved. %ome ideas were -latantly destructive of forests. #onservation proposals were uncosted and uncoordinated with development strategies. %o last summer, with :ondon and 6ashington still unwilling to &

+ match 7erman offers to fund the pro8ect, the 6orld 1an< effectively gra--ed the reins. ;t drew up its own proposals, which involve a tight hand on the purse strings, through a rainforest trust to -e set up under the um-rella of the new 7lo-al nvironment Facility A the -an<'s response to the criticism that many of its development pro8ects have -een environmentally destructive. The plan was agreed -y the 6estern donors and 1razil at a meeting in 7eneva in early !ecem-er Fsee This 6ee<, &15&' !ecem-er 1))1G. #ash commitments reached D&23 million, the amount the -an< said it needed to start the pro8ect. The pro8ect is a pioneering attempt to marry 1razil's desire for economic development with an international desire to save large parts of the world's largest rainforest, for their -iological wealth and presumed role in maintaining the world's weather. 1ut it is also a model for saving other forests and other crucial ecosystems around the planet. As Ro-erto %meraldi from Friends of the arth ;nternational and author of a critiEue of the programme, e9plains: '(onths -efore the =$'s arth %ummit in Rio, this is a critical test of the political will of governments to solve glo-al environmental pro-lems.' 1ut how do you stop the destruction of a rainforest as large as 6estern urope@ The programme has four aims. The first is to 'conserve -iodiversity and indigenous areas', where tri-al groups still live largely in harmony with nature. This will -e done -y creating and policing national par<s and reserves that could eventually cover more than a Euarter of the forested region. !emarcation of protected land will ta<e up around a Euarter of pro8ect funds. Another aim is to 'consolidate environmental policy changes and strengthen implementing institutions'. This will include economic and ecological zoning of the forests. The programme should also 'develop scientific <nowledge and applied technologies for sustaina-le development'. This will include everything from researching rainforest ecosystems to investigating 6estern mar<ets for fruits, nuts and other forest products and developing methods of logging forests without destroying them. Finally the scheme should '-uild support for environmentally -enign development', which could mean anything. There has never -een anything inevita-le a-out the rate of destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Thirty years of invasion, which culminated in the orgy of forest -urning -y mostly poor colonists in the late 1)'3s, followed a deli-erate government policy, devised -y military rulers in the early 1)?3s. This encouraged migration into the Amazon -y -uilding roads and offering generous ta9 and other incentives to -oth industrialists and land speculators. Few spo<e then of saving the rainforestH most wanted to 'open up the 8ungle' with a9e and fire. ;n its report presented to the meeting in 7eneva in !ecem-er, the 6orld 1an< said: 'An e9panding Amazonian road networ< ensured the availa-ility of a-undant, cheap land which in turn eroded the potential profita-ility of sustaina-le agriculture and silviculture.' "oor soils completed the carnage. As the natural fertility of their soils declined, farmers simply moved on. 6hy -other to -uy fertiliser when you can simply -urn the forest to clear land down the road and start again@ The 6orld 1an< helped to fund the process -y -ac<ing, among other things, the "olonoroeste pro8ect in the 1)'3s, which paved 0ighway +?, in Rondonia, a state in 6estern 1razil. This encouraged migrants and helped them to mar<et their produce. ;n the past decade, the rush to ma<e money from the Amazon -asin has destroyed 1& per cent of the forest, according to satellite images. The driving forces of road -uilding, ta9 concessions and the push to migrate are largely gone today -ecause the -an< -urned its fingers and the 1razilian government ran out of cash and credit. The -an< now sees the time as 'propitious' for conservation. ;t hopes that the forces of law, nature conservation and rational planning can now penetrate the 8ungle highways as freely as outlaw colonists. The danger is that, after -eing <ic<Astarted -y government, the 'opening up' of the Amazon may -e unstoppa-le. 1razil already has the em-ryonic structure to police the Amazon A the conservation -odies, the maps of intended national par<s, the environmental laws, the research centres. 6hat it lac<s, says the -an<, is cash and e9pertise to do the 8o-. A <ey phrase in the pro8ect plans is 'institutional strengthening' for -odies such as ;1A(A, the main national environmental agency, and F=$A;, which oversees local ;ndian affairs. The first and most o-vious 8o- will -e to -eef up national par<s. The 6orld 1an< wants to invest in five national par<s Fsee mapG -ased in Amazonia, .au, #hapada dos 7uimaraes, 7uapore and .ari cological %tation within the first si9 months of the pro8ect. These, it says, need urgent protection from 'sEuatters, loggers and miners'. 6ithin three years, 12 such par<s would receive e9tra protection, through more and -etter trained par< rangers, -etter demarcation of -oundaries and so on. (ost of the rainforest is inha-ited -y 1razilian ;ndians and the many generations of colonists who have arrived here over the past century. FThere is a sizea-le community of .apanese farmers, for instance.G (any of the forest dwellers still live in the forest without destroying it. %o a second tas< is to -olster these uses, or as the -an< puts it: '. . . as an alternative to destructive activities such as cattle ranching, logging or colonisation ... to develop appropriate sustaina-le economic and ecological management models'. ;n this ungainly statement pro-a-ly lies the <ey to success or failure of the entire pro8ect. The most pu-licised of these management models are the new e9tractive reserves A the legacy of the ru--er tappers'

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

, leader #hico (endes, who was assassinated at his home in the far western state of Acre in 1)'). There are so far four such reserves, set up -y the government in the past two years as stretches of forest communally owned -y communities of ru--er tappers and 1razil nut growers. (ost of these people, li<e the (endes family, moved into the forests early this century as employees of large landowners. The reserves were esta-lished, as the -an< puts it, to help forest dwellers to 'defend their homes and resource -ase against often violent encroachment' from cattle ranchers and others. The largest, the #hico (endes 9tractive Reserve, covers almost a million hectares, half the size of 6ales. The Amazon pro8ect calls for the e9tension of the decrees esta-lishing the four pioneer reserves, each of which lapses this year, and the creation of &3 more in the ne9t three years. 1ut the -an< warns: '. . . ;t is a mista<e to thin< of e9tractive reserves as a panacea . . . The gatherers are currently producing only a marginal income.' The communities and their outside supporters want a system of guaranteed prices for products of e9tractive reserves. 1ut the -an< instead calls for research into ways of -oosting incomes. That means loo<ing for new 8ungle products such as medicinal plants and natural vegeta-le oils A -alms for the Amazon economy as well as the customers of 1ody %hops round the world. ;t also means investing in small factories to process produce in the forests and activities ranging from 'ecoA tourism' to alligator ranches and heartAofApalm plantations. The -an< says that it wants to concentrate on finding moneyAma<ing schemes that can -e used throughout the Amazon. #urrently, e9tractive reserves meet the -an<'s test of ecological -ut not of economic sustaina-ility. 'These products and technologies emerged in the conte9t of smallAscale, lowAdensity, nonAmar<et societies and often reEuire adaptation to dynamic mar<et economies.' The Euestion is: can this -e done without -ringing a new era of destruction in the forests@ (any, including 6estern environmentalists, -elieve that the involvement of the 6orld 1an< and 'dynamic mar<et economies' could -e the <iss of death for e9tractive reserves. A report -y Friends of the arth ;nternational last summer warned of the ris<s that middle men could gain control of ru--er produced on commercialised e9tractive reserves. The -an< itself admits that 'there is some Euestion as to whether erecting financial and institutional and organisational machinery, such as proposed here, might erode the independence and selfA sufficiency of this uniEue movement . . . ' Also living in the 8ungle are the indigenous 1razilian ;ndian communities. The largest community, the Banomami, was recently offered its own reservation -y "resident #ollor de (ello after a &1Ayear struggle Fsee This 6ee<, +3 $ovem-er 1))1G. ;n many places, notes the -an<, 'the indigenous reservations tend to -e -etter protected from environmental degradation than those under the protection of the government environmental , agencies'. 1y 1)),, according to the current 1razilian constitution, all reservations should -e -ounded -y concrete mar<ers at &33Ametre intervals round their -orders. To date, however, there has -een little or no progress due to a lac< of resources. The 6orld 1an< wants to change this -y funding the demarcation of all reserves, from the fishing islands along the Rio $egro in the west to the lands of the "oturu in "ara state. ;t is only five years since the "oturu were first contacted -y the $ew Tri-es (issionaries, yet their lands are now threatened with invasion. /ne of the most controversial features of the pilot pro8ect is the reha-ilitation of a-andoned former forest land A the huge stretches of former mines and ranches and land left for dead -y tim-er companies and cattle ranchers. 'Reha-ilitation is often thought of as restoring an area of land to its original conditions,' says the -an<'s report. '0owever, this solution is rarely feasi-le.' /ften, it says, reha-ilitation will mean simply restoring a cover of vegetation to eroding soils. And here is where alarm -ells -egin to ring. The 1razilian government wants to see 'reha-ilitation' money put into planting former natural forest with eucalyptus trees. Through successive drafts of the pro8ect, 1razil has pushed for the inclusion of a large eucalyptus plantation on land in the 7rand #ara8as region. This huge area, roughly a tenth of the entire Amazon -asin, has -een largely stripped in recent years to provide charcoal production and pulpwood for cellulose manufacture. 1razil says that the plantations will provide an alternative to chopping down natural forest, -ut environmentalists say they will encourage industry and -ring pollution and more colonists in their wa<e. :ast summer, 1razil was persuaded -y 6estern governments to withdraw the proposal A at least as a scheme deserving the support of a conservation pro8ect. 1ut -y !ecem-er it had Euietly reappeared. 6hile environmentalists were -oasting of the final 'removal of the #ara8as plantations scheme', the small print of the -an< report noted that 'reha-ilitation of degraded areas in the #ara8as region' was '-eing considered -y the government of 1razil for inclusion in the pilot programme'. #ivil servants close to the negotiations said that the plantation pro8ect was '-ac< in'. "erhaps the test for the pro8ect will -e in how the detailed economic and ecological zoning of the Amazon is carried out. (uch of the -iological diversity resides in a few core areas. :i<ewise the heartlands of the 1razilian ;ndians and other identifia-le groups, in theory at least, may cover only a Euarter of the region. The <ey Euestion is what happens to the rest of the forest. 6ill it -e handed over to the miners and cattle ranchers or set aside for the new e9tractive reserves and other -enign uses@ /ne 6orld 1an< adviser, !ennis (ahare, argues that the ma8ority of the land should -e held 'in perpetuity as forest reserves, closed to all development or as sites for environmentally -enign activities such as ru--er tapping and 1razil nut gathering, tourism or

2 sustainedAyield logging.' 1ut most environmentalists are profoundly pessimistic. The radical 6orld Rainforest (ovement warns that once the areas zoned for industry and agriculture are e9hausted, 'it is almost inevita-le that 'protected areas' will -e encroached upon'. ;t adds that zoning does nothing to address the social and political forces that lie -ehind forest destruction. ;ndeed it is a policy that is intended to allow the 'growthAoriented development programmes that are at the root of deforestation to continue'. For these radicals the 6orld 1an<'s vision of environmentally -enign economic development of the Amazon is a recipe for further destruction. '%o long as economic growth remains the o-8ect of our economic activities, the tropical forests will always -e under the a9e.' !espite these dou-ts, a successful -eginning to the pro8ect will -oost support for the =$ arth %ummit. $egotiations in advance of the summit are currently mired in disputes -etween rich nations A who want certain glo-al resources such as rainforests protected A and the poor nations, who want economic development. The poor nations lay glo-al trou-les at the door of the rich, and insist that if they want to mitigate the damage they have done -y, for instance, preserving rainforests they must stand the -ill. (uch hangs on the success of the colla-oration -etween the 7roup of %even governments and 1razil in the Amazon rainforest. ;t will, as the -an< says, 'provide an important e9ample of international cooperation in support of a glo-al o-8ective that will -enefit the discussions ta<ing place in the negotiations of conventions on -iodiversity and climate change' A not to mention a proposed glo-al agreement on saving rainforests. ;n the case of the Amazon rainforest, the rich countries have conceded that the rest of the world has an interest and a duty to invest in saving it. As the -an< report notes: '"reservation of -iodiversity, reduction in car-on emissions and new <nowledge a-out the sustaina-le activities in tropical rainforests represent -enefits Ffrom the pilot programmeG that are glo-al in scope and 8ustify financial transfers from the international community to 1razil.' #ome Rio in .une, the rest of the world may argue that what goes for 1razil should go for them, too. "RA#T;#A: TAR7 T% F/R %" $!;$7 %cience, says the 6orld 1an<, is the <ey to saving the Amazon rainforest. ;t intends to spend more than half of the proposed D+23 million -udget for its pilot programme on research and monitoring in the rainforest. (ost of the money will go to two research centres A the $ational ;nstitute of Amazon %tudies at (anaus, the largest city in the forest, and the 7oeldi (useum at 1elem, on the coast. '#onditions in these wellAesta-lished centres have recently deteriorated dramatically,' says the -an<, 'due to a generalised lac< of funds.' %cientists have no The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz photocopiers, classes at 7oeldi are held in a her-arium thic< with pesticide fumes, zoological specimens are <ept in mayonnaise 8ars with rusting tops and plant specimens rot in old wooden containers. %u-scriptions to most 8ournals have lapsed, computers are rare, phone lines must -e -oo<ed days in advance, salaries for senior staff have -een halved and there are +33 unfilled vacancies. /ver the ne9t two years, the -an< wants to spend D1+3 million on these two centres, topping up salaries, creating endowed chairs to attract top scientists, installing eEuipment and setting up training programmes. ;t will -e the largest single tranche of cash in the early years of the pro8ect. (ore money is earmar<ed for specific research pro8ects. cologists will delve into the myriad ecosystems of the 8ungle and research ways to reclaim degraded landH anthropologists will investigate how to -etter the lot of 1razilian ;ndians without destroying their way of lifeH economists aim to improve the economic productivity of the forests. /ther teams will measure the e9change of heat, car-on dio9ide and water -etween the forest canopy and the air a-ove. These data will help scientists to assess whether the loss of the forest will e9acer-ate the greenhouse effect, heat up the tropics or cause drought in countries far away. ;ndeed, the whole rationale for funding such studies out of international coffers is that their results are li<ely to -e of glo-al, rather than 8ust local, relevance. /fficials at 1ritain's /verseas !evelopment Administration anticipate a strong contri-ution from 1ritish science that will -uild on the (emorandum of =nderstanding signed in 1)') -etween the 1razilian government and the then minister for overseas development, #hris "atten. %o far, 1ritish pro8ects in the Amazon have concentrated on climate research and on ecological studies of the flooded forest of #om-u ;sland near 1elem. $ew pro8ects will investigate the economic value of aromatic forest plants as medicines and food flavouring and, more controversially, the feasi-ility of sustaina-le logging in the Tapa8os forest in "ara state. (ost tropical ecologists remain sceptical a-out sustaina-le tim-er e9traction, which, as the 6orld 1an< notes in its report, is 'still an unproven concept'. The 1ritish are <een to try to harness local e9pertise as much in the fields and forests of the Amazon as in the la-oratories, says "atten's successor, :ynda #hal<er. %he told the Royal 7eographical %ociety last (ay: '6e must -uild on the considera-le <nowledge that local communities have of their environment A after all, they have -een managing them for a long time.' #hal<er spo<e of a farmer she met near 1elem who 'had a remar<a-le range of s<ills ranging from the construction of shrimp traps from palm fronds to the harvesting and processing of the fruits of the acai palms. 6e must not lose this <nowledge -ut -uild on it.'

? 1ut will the current 6orld 1an< plan, with its emphasis on outside scientists and on funding research into 'replica-le' pro8ects, tap this local e9pertise@ /ne way to ensure at least some involvement of the local communities would -e to help fund a research centre and university course set up -y the =nion of ;ndian $ations at the #atholic =niversity in 7oias, (ato 7rosso. The aim of the centre, says the union's national coordinator Ailton >rena<, is to assem-le in written form the accumulated e9pertise in -iology and native law of the ;ndian communities throughout the forests and surrounding grasslands, and to find the elements of 6estern technology that can help them. They want, for instance, to improve their orchards and animal hus-andry and to develop simple food processing plants A for crac<ing nut shells, peeling fruit, e9tracting seeds and milling grain. %ome 6estern voluntary groups are <een to -ac< such smallAscale local pro8ects. ;n 1ritain, the 7aia Foundation has funded the .a-uru regeneration pro8ect, the first pro8ect of the ;ndian Research #entre. Through this, the Iavante people hope to com-ine economic development and ecological regeneration on land to which they returned after the departure of loggers and cattle ranchers, who had cleared the tim-er and e9hausted the soils in the midA1)'3s. The pro8ect involves -reeding, in captivity, wild animals such as pigs, and harvesting and processing fruits, using eEuipment supplied -y the ;ndian Research #entre. The starting point for their research is not 6estern technology or e9pertise, -ut the local shaman Fmedicine manG. As the 7aia Foundation puts it, the shaman 'guided the meetings with this dreams . . . this main concern was that his people were losing touch with the laws of the forest and starting to thin< li<e the white man A -elieving that development means destroying the forest for cash.' /ne of the outstanding Euestions for the 6orld 1an< and the uropean #ommunity is whether such pro8ects, conceived and e9ecuted -y local people using their own -eliefs and <nowledge, can find a place within the Amazon pro8ect. ;t is a long way from a 7roup of %even %ummit to a shaman's hut in the rainAforest A -ut it may -e the only route to saving the rainforests. Figures: Road map of the Amazon Review $ew %cientist, 12 %eptem-er 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14+, realm of studies of glo-al warming, satellite images and the dialogue -etween the rich $orth and the poor %outhH instead, he condenses all the issues into the story of one man, a ru--er tapper named #hico (endes. (endes was gunned down -y a pair of pistolieros hired -y ranchers on && !ecem-er 1)''. 0e is an apt sym-ol of the struggle over the future of the forests that involves the people of the remote state of Acre, the citizens of 1razil and the decisionAma<ers in the First 6orld. Andrew Rev<in, an American science writer who spent three months in 1razil researching for this -oo<, tells the history of the ru--er tappers, people who arrived a century ago to e9ploit the rain forests -ut who now stand as the final -arrier to their destruction. Tappers hac< narrow paths through the dense growth to reach the widely dispersed ru--er trees, whose -ar< they score to release its valua-le late9. Their lives depend on <eeping the forest intact so even though they hunt and damage the trees slightly, 'they wal< lightly in the forest'. Their adversaries are the ranchers, -ac<ed -y the government in 1rasilia, nationalism and international development loans. The ranchers, who have already devastated a huge swathe of rain forest to create Fironically shortAlivedG pastures for their cattle, will -urn down every last tree in the region if they can. (uch of The 1urning %eason is devoted to the history and economics -ehind what appears to -e a senseless drive to rape and plunder the natural resources of 1razil. The military, which has run the country for much of 1razil's history, wants to sta<e its claim to all of its territory, lest other nations encroach upon it. "oliticians, eager to find a safety valve for 1razil's impoverished, fastAgrowing population, want to open the Amazon to settlement. #attle -arons, accustomed to land that is virtually free, need a constant supply of new territory -ecause the soil in the Amazon will not support grazing for more than a few years. Rev<in recounts this history a-ly, from colonial days up to the past &3 years, when the assault on the Amazon moved into high gear. 1ut ; sometimes found his -oo< hard going, even though ; am familiar with 1razilian history and contemporary politics. ;n spite of this, Rev<in does ma<e it clear that it is greed and national pride that are destroying the forests. ; was also disappointed to find only a single chapter devoted to the -iological riches of the rain forests, such as the caterpillar whose spines release an antiAclotting factor. The -iologists who spea< of vanishing species and a treasure house of drugs from tropical plants, li<e the climatologists with their :andsat photos and computer models, have -een almost helpless -ystanders as the trees disappear. Rev<in mentions how odd it is to wal< in a 1razilian forest with an e9perienced tropical -otanist, point out a tree, as< its :atin name, and -e told that the scientist does not <now, and that it has pro-a-ly never -een classified. ?

The good, the -ad and the green in Amazonia ./$AT0A$ 1 AR!
The 1urning %eason: The (urder of #hico (endes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest -y Andrew Rev<in, 0oughton (ifflin, pp +14, D1'.)2, #ollins in 1ritain, "ounds sterling 1? h-<, "ounds sterling ).)2 p-< A$!R 6 R *>;$ ta<es the environmental disaster of the destruction of 1razil's rain forests away from the

4 and attempts some welcome definitions. For e9ample, 'rain forest' encompasses every thing from untouched virgin forest to areas that have -een logged and selectively replanted. '(anagement' can mean anything from leaving the forest to itself, to logging and replanting with commercially desira-le species. %ucceeding chapters give authoritative accounts of the progress towards sustaina-le management, -ut mostly the lac< of it, in 1? of the countries who have signed the ;nternational Tropical Tim-er Agreement in Africa, Asia and %outh America and the #ari--ean. /ne chapter is devoted to the successful management practices developed in Kueensland, Australia. The findings are not too encouraging. #ountries producing tim-er within the ;TT/ account for a-out 2'3 million hectares of rainforests, out of a world total of '&' million hectares. The report shows that well under 1 million hectares are properly managed for the future. Finally the authors attempt to analyse the failures, and provide an optimistic agenda for action. 7reed and corruption play their part in the disappearance of the trees, -ut the main reason is that forests are unprotected. 6e cannot e9pect foresters to start longAterm planning if there is a possi-ility that their trees will -e cut down ne9t year, or the year after. $o Tim-er 6ithout Trees is, as the title suggests, the foresters' tale, and as such the -oo< is unashamedly partisan. /ne contri-utor appears to condemn the 'environmentalists' Fin the guise of the #ommonwealth governmentsG, who -anned logging under a sound, fle9i-le plan for sustaina-le tim-er production in an area of rainforest in Kueensland, Australia, when the forest -ecame a possi-le 6orld 0eritage site. 9cept for the plea for urgent action, many of the recommendations will -e controversial. 7reen fundamentalists will -aul< at the idea of the economist's enthusiasm for eEuating a certain num-er of dollars with a Euantity of -ananas, cathedrals, oil, toothpic<s or trees. They argue that we should develop a new value system, a green economics. And isn't real development a-out enfranchising the poor@ The only people that we can entrust with safeguarding the rainforests are the indigenous forest dwellers. They <now more a-out the plant and animal life in their forests than anyone else, and as their lives depend upon <eeping the forests intact, they also have the strongest incentive to protect them. #redit should go to arthscan for giving a wider audience to a report that would otherwise remain on the -oo<shelves of institutions. Features $ew %cientist, &) (ay 1))+, *ol.1+' $o.1'42 "age &2

1ut The 1urning %eason -egins and ends with the murder of (endes, carried out -y hired gunmen who will pro-a-ly never -e -rought to trial. !espite Rev<in's attempt to provide an up-eat ending, stressing that the murder may have galvanised the press, international environmental groups and even the #ollor government to ta<e serious action to protect the tappers and their trees, it is hard to see the story as anything -ut a tragedy. 6ith hundreds of hectares of such woods going up in smo<e every day, we are spectators at the funeral of countless plants, insects, mon<eys and -irds A and (endes as well. Review $ew %cientist, 3+ Fe-ruary 1))3, *ol.1&2 $o.143&

"lantation policies for saving trees 5 Review of '$o Tim-er 6ithout Trees: %ustaina-ility in the Tropical Forest' -y !uncan "oore, "eter 1urgess, .ohn "almer, %imon Riet-ergen and Timothy %ynnott " T R ! 7R//T
$o Tim-er 6ithout Trees: %ustaina-ility in the Tropical Forest -y !uncan "oore, "eter 1urgess, .ohn "almer, %imon Riet-ergen and Timothy %ynnottH arthscan, pp &2&, J ).)2 F:A%0 7ordon had no pro-lem in saving the world in 1, minutes, -ut putting a stop to deforestation would surely have defeated him. 0ow do you stop the destruction of tropical rainforests when it is in the shortA term interest of so many countries and individuals to carry on the carnage@ The answer tends to depend upon the -eliefs, ideology or profession of the person Euestioned. $o Tim-er 6ithout Trees argues the case for the solutions advocated -y the economic foresters. The -oo< is -ased on a report produced for the ;nternational Tropical Tim-er /rganization F;TT/G, whose main o-8ective is in promoting the e9pansion and diversification of the international trade in tropical tim-er. "ut simply, the -elief is that, although governments value their forests -ecause of the precious tim-er that they provide, the economic value is often low -ecause tropical forests are regarded as an infinite resource. %o trees are plundered with no thought for future harvests. ;f governments were only told the true economic worth of their rainforests, they might ensure research and efficient management for sustaina-le cropping of desired woods, and thus secure the safety of the rainforests. 6ithout the protection afforded -y the economic production of tim-er, the lands from natural forests will -e usurped for raising crops or livestoc<, 8ust as they were in the north. The report sets out to locate rainforests that are managed for sustained tim-er production, and to find the lessons to -e learnt from successful and failed programmes. The first chapter defines what is meant -y sustaina-le management, gives a -rief account of the issues involved The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

7enes from a disappearing world: A ma8or international pro8ect to collect !$A fingerprints from the ethnic groups on the verge of e9tinction has touched off a heated

'

de-ate a-out genetics, race and human welfare R/7 R : 6;$


';t will lead to an understanding of who we are as a species and how we came to -e.' These -old words, from (arieA#laire >ing, a geneticist at the =niversity of #alifornia, 1er<eley, refer to a new and controversial proposal to create a glo-al map of human genetic variation. The aim of the pro8ect is to analyse and compare thousands of !$A samples from hundreds of different ethnic groups A an am-itious underta<ing which is li<ely to produce a rich seam of information on the origins and migration histories of human populations and the genetic -asis of their differing suscepti-ilities to certain diseases. >nown as the 0uman 7enome !iversity "ro8ect, the venture is awaiting financial approval in the =% and urope. 1ut if it goes ahead, it will involve geneticists and anthropologists collecting -lood from at least &2 individuals from each of some 233 ethnic groups worldwide. There is great urgency, say the pro8ect's proponents, -ecause many ethnic groups are on the verge of e9tinction, as small, isolated, a-original societies either die out or are a-sor-ed into larger populations. The techniEues central to the pro8ect A methods of collecting and preserving human cells and, most important, of efficiently detecting variations in !$A A have only recently -ecome availa-le. ';t would -e tragically ironic if, during the same decade that -iological tools for understanding our species were created, ma8or opportunities for applying them were sEuandered,' the pro8ect's leaders wrote in an article in the summer of 1))1 when trying to whip up support for the initiative. ;nitially, the response was uniformly enthusiastic, as many researchers realised that the pro8ect would produce useful genetic information more Euic<ly than the muchA vaunted 0uman 7enome "ro8ect, the 12Ayear plan to map and seEuence all three -illion -ases of the human genetic -lueprint. 'The diversity pro8ect gives us an unparalleled opportunity to apply genetic techniEues to important anthropological pro-lems,' said >en 6eiss, an anthropologist at "ennsylvania %tate =niversity. (ore recently, however, criticism has -egun to -e voiced a-out the pro8ect's aims and underlying philosophy. #ritics argue that the diversity pro8ect's approach is -ased on an outmoded notion of race. The pro8ect is '&1stAcentury technology applied to 1)thAcentury -iology', says Alan %wedlund, head of the anthropology department at the =niversity of (assachusetts at Amherst. >nowing a-out human genetic diversity is a worthwhile goal, he admits, -ut the view that isolated populations can -e treated as genetically discrete is simplistic. This <ind of 'typological' thin<ing A which underpins all notions of racial differences A has -een in retreat for years, argue the critics, and for good reason: it assumes not only that human groups are defined solely

-y genetic characteristics -ut that these vary from group to group in a distinctive manner. ;n addition, %wedlund is angered -y what he 8udges to -e a colonial attitude. The pro8ect's leaders, he says, have hitherto ignored the plight of a-original peoples -ut now want to swoop in, collect -lood for their own scientific goals, and then leave the people to their fate. This criticism is shared -y a growing num-er of anthropologists, who fear that their science is -ecoming dominated -y genetic determinism and is losing touch with social and cultural issues. Anthropologists, they argue, have a duty to attend to the real life circumstances of the people they study, in addition to pursuing scientific Euestions. The idea for the diversity pro8ect originated two years ago in the =%, from discussions -etween :uigi :uca #avalliA%forza of %tanford =niversity, and >enneth >idd of Bale =niversity. uropean interest Euic<ly followed, under the guidance of 6alter 1odmer, then president of the :ondonA-ased 0uman 7enome /rganisation F0=7/G. The uropean and =% initiatives, while -eing closely integrated in planning and approach, were to -e funded separately. Funding for the =% programme, which is estimated to cost some D&2 million over five years, will depend heavily on the outcome of an imminent review of the future of the 0uman 7enome "ro8ect. ven though support for the diversity pro8ect would reEuire only a small proportion of the 0uman 7enome "ro8ect's annual -udget of more than D133 million, it would divert funds from goals already set. ;f 0uman 7enome "ro8ect officials don't loo< <indly on the diversity pro8ect, #avalliA%forza and his colleagues will approach international -odies, such as the 60/ and =$ %#/. Funding for the uropean programme, whose -udget has yet to -e determined -ut may reach D2 million, is also to -e settled within the ne9t few months, at least for the initial part of the pro8ect. An application to the uropean #ommunity's 1)), fund for science is said to have -een favoura-ly considered. #avalliA%forza is among the world's leading human geneticists, and has -een collecting genetic information from hundreds of populations around the world for almost four decades. This information is -ased on analysing proteins A the products of genes A and is in the form of soAcalled classical genetic mar<ers, such as -lood groups. 1ecause the vast ma8ority of proteins vary little, if at all, from one person to the ne9t, the scope of such mar<ers is limited. =seful ones num-er less than a hundred. !uring the 1)'3s the science of molecular genetics matured, with the result that researchers e9tended their search for mar<ers to include not only genes -ut stretches of human !$A that do not encode proteins. This led to the discovery of a wealth of polymorphisms A !$A seEuences that vary from one person to the ne9t and which can -e readily detected. 1ecause there are thousands of these polymorphisms, scattered around the human genome, they represent a rich source of '

) previously undetected genetic variation within and -etween populations. 7:/1A: T0;$>;$7 ;n 1)',, soon after the new source of !$A polymorphisms was first identified, #avalliA%forza and >idd -egan a colla-oration to analyse genetic diversity in some &23 a-original populations around the world. 1y 1))1 they had collected -lood and esta-lished cultures of white -lood cells from 1+ of those populations. Frustrated -y the slow progress, and inspired -y the glo-al thin<ing of the late Allan 6ilson, #avalliA%forza realised that a ma8or effort was reEuired. 6ilson, who died last summer, had long e9ploited genetic techniEues for studying human evolution. 0e is perhaps -est <nown for his ve hypothesis A a theory, -ased on variations in !$A found in mitochondria Fwhich are inherited only in the maternal lineG, that all modern humans originated from Africa Fsee $ew %cientist, %cience, 12 Fe-ruary, 1))&G. 6ith >ing, #harles #antor of the =niversity of #alifornia, 1er<eley, and Ro-ert #oo<A!eegan of the ;nstitute of (edicine, 6ashington !#, #avalliA%forza and 6ilson signed an article titled '#all for a 6orldwide %urvey of 0uman 7enetic !iversity', pu-lished in the 8ournal 7enomics in the summer of 1))1. The message was that, admira-le though the 0uman 7enome "ro8ect may -e in see<ing a complete description of human !$A, it ignored genetic diversity. 'The total a-sence of <nowledge on individual variation would -e unaccepta-le,' proclaimed #avalliA%forza. 'The '1oo< of (an' would -e rather shallow if it were written without consideration of the wellA<nown fact that everyone is different from everyone else.' A series of meetings was soon planned to decide on strategy and techniEues: how many, and which, of the 4333 or so ethnic groups around the world to include in the surveyH how many individuals to sample in each populationH and how -est to collect and preserve the !$A. 1odmer, a longAtime associate of #avalliA%forzaLs, initiated similar plans to study !$A variation in uropean populations, calling the venture 'a cultural o-ligation of the 0uman 7enome "ro8ect'. :eaders of the =% pro8ect were -arely at the planning stage when they fell out over the sampling strategy. #avalliA%forza wanted to sample a-original populations that had long -een isolated and were culturally and linguistically discrete. 6ilson, -y contrast, pushed for a geographicAgrid strategy, where sampling would simply ta<e place every 23 or 133 miles, regardless of who was there. The first approach focuses on populations, the second on individuals A a difference in emphasis that flows from the techniEues used -y the two protagonists. 6or<ing with !$A in the cell nucleus, #avalliA%forza has always measured the freEuency of certain genetic mar<ers in populations, not their a-solute presence or a-sence. ;n mitochondrial !$A, -y contrast, seEuence differences The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz -uild up much more Euic<ly, with the result that even individuals living relatively close together can have uniEue polymorphisms. ;t was clear that #avalliA%forza's populationA-ased approach would achieve many of the pro8ect's goals, producing information galore on genetic variation among the selected ethnic groups. 1ut in 6ilson's eyes, the grid strategy promised something more radical. 1y eschewing traditional notions a-out what constitutes an ethnic group in favour of a less -iased sampling strategy, he argued, researchers could amass a much more powerful set of data A information a-out genetic differences that could -e used to reconstruct the history of modern people. At the pro8ect's first wor<shop, held at %tanford =niversity a month after 6ilson's death, (ar< %tone<ing, a molecular geneticist at "ennsylvania %tate =niversity, echoed 6ilson's concern. 1y sampling populations -ased on linguistic and cultural uniEueness, he said, the outcome would -e predetermined: 'Bou will find that the human species is made up of wellAdefined ethnic and linguistic groups.' 1y the end of the %tanford wor<shop a compromise was achieved. The population approach would dominate, -ut sampling would also -e done -etween ethnic groups, wherever it was feasi-le. The wor<shop also tac<led the practical issue of how many individuals should -e sampled in a population. The need for statistical significance had to -e -alanced with the logistical difficulties of ta<ing -lood samples and getting them to a la-oratory within two days. ;n the end, delegates agreed that &2 samples would -e sufficient, provided numerous !$A polymorphisms were su-seEuently analysed. The -iggest costs would occur when the samples reached la-oratories, where they would have to -e manipulated so as to produce 'immortal' cell lines A a demanding and e9pensive process costing D233 per sample. At a second wor<shop, held last /cto-er at "ennsylvania %tate =niversity, the main aim was to draw up a list of target populations. #hoosing 233 from the 4333 e9tant ethnic groups was not easy. /ne criterion for inclusion was imminent danger of e9tinction. This applies to a-out half of the selected groups, including the 0adza of Tanzania, the Bu<aghir of %i-eria and the /nge and 7reater Andamanese of the Andaman ;slands, (alaysia. Another o-8ective was to choose groups whose genetic ma<eAup could shed light on specific anthropological pro-lems, such as how the Americas were first colonised, or the history of the 1antu e9pansion in Africa, &333 years ago. Representatives of the uropean and American initiatives have formed 8oint committees, so that strategies and techniEues can -e coordinated. This month, participants of the uropean pro8ect will gather at the =niversity of Turin to select target populations. 1ecause of the greater amount of historical information availa-le for uropean populations, and easier access to la-oratories, the num-er of individuals sampled in each population is li<ely to -e higher than in the =%Arun

13 venture, perhaps as many as 133. The mystery of the 1asEues and the spread of ;ndoA uropeans some ?333 years ago are li<ely topics for investigation. There will also -e a strong emphasis on the genetics of suscepti-ility to disease and why it varies from population to population. A further uropean wor<shop, to -e held 8ointly with the Americans in %ardinia in %eptem-er, will discuss ethics, among other things. The Americans have already touched on the ethics issue, at a wor<shop at the $ational ;nstitutes of 0ealth, in Fe-ruary this year. /ne of the participants, !iane "aul, who runs a course on science and values at the =niversity of (assachusetts at 1oston, was not impressed. ';t seemed li<e window dressing to me,' she comments. ';ssues were raised, -ut then not addressed. Responses were defensive, with people saying 'this can -e dealt with' or 'that won't happen'.' The thorniest issue was that of race: would the pro8ect's spotlight on genetic diversity among people encourage racism@ F:eaders of the uropean venture are already sensitive to this, and prefer to spea< of 'genetic varia-ility' rather than the more politicallyAloaded term, 'diversity'.G There were two responses to the Euestion. The first is e9emplified -y an o-servation of >idd's. 'There is no denying there is genetic diversity in the world, -ut racism is -ased on cultural attitudes not on genetic differences,' he says. 'Bou only have to loo< at what's happening in urope to see that. $othing we produce will affect that.' The second response is more optimistic, and is -ased on a longAesta-lished fact a-out human genetics: that there is more varia-ility within populations than -etween them. The diversity pro8ect will underscore this point, says >ing, and help to undermine the popular -elief that genetic differences are always greatest -etween different populations. And as to the pro8ect -eing -ased on outmoded ideas of racial differences@ '$o geneticist has done more than #avalliA%forza to reveal that genetic variation -etween groups is continuous, not discrete,' says 6eiss. 'This has undermined typological thin<ing, not supported it.' 1ut to many critics, such optimism appears naive. ;ndeed, #avalliA%forza himself inadvertently upset anthropologists at a scientific gathering last year -y using the phrase 'ethnic group' for people in urope and 'tri-e' for those in Africa. 6eiss admits this was unfortunate -ut insists that #avalliA%forza should -e 8udged on his science not his language. (ore practical ethical issues are still to -e resolved in areas such as informed consent and intellectual property rights, says .ulia 1odmer, a leader of the uropean initiative. ;t is all too easy, as history has shown, for scientists to descend on a village or town, organise the collection of -iological samples Fin this case -loodG with the help of local contacts, and sweep out again without even thin<ing a-out local consent. 6ill the same happen with the human diversity pro8ect@ For that matter, can anyone say what constitutes true consent in the case of a 13 venture which lies outside the technical e9perience of many of the people concerned@ And, thornier still, who will own the rights to any commercial products that flow from the pro8ect, particularly concerning the treatment of disease@ This last issue has already provo<ed -itter controversy in international discussions on a closely related su-8ect A animal and plant -iodiversity. At the arth %ummit in Rio de .aneiro last year, for e9ample, delegates from the =% stuc< to the traditional 'First 6orld' view, that the genes of plants and animals -elong to a common international heritage. The rights to financial -enefits, argue proponents of this view, go to those who manipulate the genetic repository to commercial advantage. "eople from developing countries, where most of the world's -iodiversity is found, properly challenge this position, says "aul. 'Researchers will have to face up to this issue in the genome diversity pro8ect,' she says. ;t will -e on the agenda for the %eptem-er meeting, says .ulia 1odmer. ://(;$7 #/$F:;#T 6hen it comes to the second main criticism of the diversity pro8ect A that it will do nothing to improve the welfare of indigenous peoples A 6eiss has some sympathy. '6e are concerned a-out the wellA-eing of these people,' he says. '1ut let's -e clear a-out this: a group of geneticists isn't going to save them. %top clearA cutting the Amazon rain forest. That will save them.' All geneticists and anthropologists can do, says 6eiss, is raise pu-lic awareness. (any of the scientists -ehind the diversity pro8ect, he points out, have -een instrumental in pu-licising the plight of the Banomami people, who live on the -order -etween 1razil and *enezuela. Their population has plummeted in recent years as unrestrained mining for gold and tin has devastated their environment A disrupting foraging territory and introducing diseases such as malaria. As the American and uropean diversity pro8ects move towards implementation, the scope for professional conflict will surely deepen. The -attle lines are already clear. /ne side sees an urgent pro8ect with scientific and medical -enefitsH the other highlights practical, humanitarian issues that are -eyond immediate scientific goals -ut which should concern scientists. %o far the two sides have yet to clash head on. 1ut when they do, feelings will run high. This much was clear at an anthropology conference in (e9ico last year where some of the humanitarian issues were highlighted. The conference was not antiAscience, insists %wedlund. ';t was a-out doing -etter science A science that is not only rigorous and interesting, and relevant, -ut also 'humanised'.' (a<ing the most of a human genetic atlas Four <ey areas of research will -enefit from worldwide data on genetic varia-ility, predict leaders of the 0uman 7enome !iversity "ro8ect F07!"G.

11 accuracy depends in part on <nowing how the !$A mar<ers detected in fingerprinting vary from one population to the ne9t. The 07!" will provide a full inventory of such mar<er variations. Forum $ew %cientist, 3+ August 1))1, *ol.1+1 $o.14'3 "age ,

0uman origins and prehistory 7enetic information from studies of !$A found in cell nuclei and mitochondria has already changed conventional thin<ing a-out human prehistory. The 07!" would strengthen such studies -y collecting information a-out many more genetic polymorphisms. /ne of the most important Fand controversialG Euestions concerns the origins of modern humans. %ome researchers -elieve that the ancestors of all modern humans lived in Africa -etween 133 333 and &33 333 years agoH others say that modern humans evolved simultaneously in many different parts of the world. 1roadening the data-ase to include !$A other than that found in mitochondria A the principal source of information at present A might help to resolve the controversy. ;nformation a-out genetic diversity would also give insights into the movements of various populations since modern humans evolved. specially important here are Euestions concerning the colonisation of the $ew 6orld, Australia, and northern Asia. For instance, did humans first colonise the Americas +2 333 years ago or much more recently, perhaps only 1& 233 years ago@ 6hereas the archaeological evidence is still eEuivocal, genetic information should -e a-le to settle the matter. (ore recent migrations, possi-ly lin<ed with the spread of agriculture or pastoralism in urope and Africa are also li<ely targets of interest. %/#;A: %TR=#T=R Anthropologists are interested in mating patterns, such as whether males or females leave their groups to marry, or whether they marry within their groups. "atterns of genetic variation, particularly from mitochondrial !$A Fpassed only through the female lineG and !$A from the B chromosome Fpassed only through the male lineG, could provide important clues. For e9ample, the a-sence in a local population of genetic mar<ers present in surrounding populations could imply that one or -oth se9es in the local population are only marrying within their group. Alternatively, it could mean that the population has only recently moved into the area. A!A"TAT;/$ A$! !;% A% Anatomy, physiology and suscepti-ility to disease can all vary from one population to the ne9t. A <ey Euestion is whether such variation is the result of adaptation to local conditions or merely random changes in genetic ma<eA up. The genetic information collected in the 07!" could provide some answers. Anthropologists are especially interested in dia-etes, thalassaemia, hypertension and sic<leAcell anaemia. F/R $%;# A$T0R/"/:/7B Traditional genetic mar<ers such as -lood groups have long -een used to identify individuals and groups. The development of !$A fingerprinting has increased the power of genetic identification techniEues. 1ut their The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

Tal<ing "oint: 7reen light for precautionary science "A=: ./0$%T/$ and (AR> %;((/$!%
6ill the growing relationship -etween science and the environmental movement fail@ %ome commentators seem to thin< so Fsee %teven Bearley '7reens and science: a doomed affair@', 1+ .ulyG. They claim that a ma8or wea<ness of the relationship derives from the ina-ility of scientists to deliver irrefuta-le facts in support of environmental issues. This shortcoming, they assert, will lead to the eventual estrangement of scientists and environmentalists. ;t is an illAinformed view, for the relationship is actually one of long standing and shows no sign of faltering for this reason. (ore significantly, the view fails to appreciate the precautionary approach to environmental protection A an important development in scientific thin<ing which increasingly underpins international environmental policy. ;t has arisen from a fusion of the ideas of scientists and environmentalists wor<ing together over some years. The precautionary approach that has emerged helps to avoid potentially damaging activities when there is reason to assume harmful effects A especially when there is no conclusive scientific evidence of any causal lin<. This shifts the -urden of proof so as to give the environment the -enefit of any dou-t. The approach contrasts with the current strategy of retrospective action when environmental damage has first to -ecome o-vious, and when the pro-lem is usually -eyond simple remedies. "recaution is part of everyday life. 6e do not normally accept unEualified personal ris<s to life and livelihood. 6e try to anticipate, avoid, reduce and remove them. 6e insure against them. The threats to glo-al integrity of the spiralling consumption of nonArenewa-le resources, nuclear proliferation, chemical contamination and the shrin<ing ozone layer are increasingly clear. ;n response, we must e9tend precaution -eyond the activities of the individual so that it -ecomes a glo-al a9iom of environmental protection. The traditionally e9pected scientific response to environmental concerns is an attempt to demonstrate, sine Eua non, a simple causal relationship -etween effects o-served in the environment and human activity. Acid rain, forest dieAoff, marine fish disease, coral -leaching, glo-al warming and marine mammal epizootics have all -een the su-8ect of considera-le research and also controversy. Too often, lac< of definitive evidence of a causal mechanism 8ustified a 'no action' policy. The pro-lem is e9acer-ated -ecause it is

1& actually considered inappropriate for environmental scientists to ma<e any final 8udgement of environmental safety. ;t has -een conveniently argued that -ecause costs must also -e weighed, decisions must -e left to politicians and financiers. ;n the environmental sciences, e9pert opinion and prediction -ased on professional 8udgement are widely used. vidence is weighed and advice given. ;n the political forums where protective legislation is enacted, the de-ate often turns solely on the Euestion of the weight of scientific evidence to hand. The true fiscal, environmental and other costs of a particular course of action are rarely Euantifia-le either, -ut this is conveniently ignored. (ore often than not, a verdict of 'not proven' is returned -ased on a perceived lac< of scientific evidence of actual harm. Remedial action is then postponed and commercial profits maintained until proof is forthcoming. This is not an appropriate strategy when demands for 'scientific proof' are usually impossi-le to fulfil. ;n a comple9 world where interacting environmental varia-les are not well <nown, much less understood, the uncertainty of scientific understanding e9poses science itself to the e9ploitative surgery of political and financial interpretation. The emergence of the precautionary approach into scientific thin<ing helps to avoid these pro-lems. ;t is a product of the thriving relationship -etween scientists engaged in trying to understand planetary processes and environmentalists actively wor<ing to try to protect the planet. ;t has helped to re<indle awareness of the social responsi-ilities of -oth groups to a system too often given over to political e9pediency and simple profit5loss accounting. The precautionary approach is often criticised for -eing scientifically unsound -ecause it advocates action in the a-sence of scientific proof. 1ut the more enlightened view holds that such an approach actually increases the rigour of the scientific process -ecause it is -ased on an understanding of the real limitations of science. ;t allows the scientist to incorporate a simple 'don't <now' or 'don't <now yet' into the wider argument, conferring a greater degree of professional freedom. ;n the wa<e of this reversal of the -urden of proof in environmental studies, it follows that scientific inEuiry will need to answer very different Euestions in the future. ;n turn, this will reEuire farAreaching changes in the way we fund and prioritise our science. $ot surprisingly, under current orthodo9y it often appears that the supposedly impartial scientific process and its supporting infrastructure are actually -iased against environmental protection. There is, in fact, an unprecedented need for truly independent research, as we struggle to understand and correct the pro-lems caused -y past and present practices. The powerful instrument of precaution can ensure the 'o-8ectivity' of this scientific wor< and aid its translation into effective political action. nvironmentalists and scientists have a 8oint responsi-ility to wor< together in communicating an honest appraisal of a given situation. They owe this to the pu-lic and to the policy ma<ers who represent the 1& pu-lic interests. The -road methodology o-viously differs, -ut it is wrong to thin< that scientists and environmentalists -elong to mutually e9clusive sets or that the schools of thought are necessarily polarised. The development of the precautionary approach attests to the productivity of the wor<ing interface and the genuine desire to e9tend its -readth and depth. A full evaluation of green science is not possi-le if the emergence of this approach is not ta<en into consideration. Any potential pro-lem resulting from scientific uncertainty and which might threaten interactions -etween scientists and environmentalists has thus -een resolved for some time. Their relationship is certainly not doomed. /n the contrary, the way is now paved to confront the future challenge of eliminating the institutional and narrowAminded a-uses of science. Then we will all -e a-le to concentrate on the real tas<: preserving the planet. Features $ew %cientist, 1? %eptem-er 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?'&

>ill or cure@ Remedies for the rainforest: There is more than one way to save a rainforest. 1ut the many parties that claim to <now which way is -est are at odds with each other FR ! " AR#
FR/( T0 comfort of a fourAstorey house in Richmond, %urrey, $ic< 0ildyard is clear a-out why the world's tropical forests are disappearing. '6estern development programmes in the Third 6orld are to -lame,' he says. 0ildyard and his mentor, Teddy 7oldsmith, have spent the 1)'3s waging a campaign in their influential 8ournal, The cologist, against the agencies that funnel 6estern cash into poor countries for dams, mines, power stations and other large development pro8ects. %uch pro8ects, they claim, destroy the environment and the cultures of the people of the tropics. =ltimately, -y undermining the planet's lifeA support systems, they threaten us all. 7oldsmith, the elder -rother of financier .immy 7oldsmith, founded The cologist in 1)?) and masterminded A 1lueprint for %urvival, one of the first of the doomladen tracts on the future of the planet that were pu-lished in the 1)43s. %ince then, he has carved for himself an important role in the world of campaigners who spend their days trying to influence the decisions of governments, aid agencies and funding -odies such as the 6orld 1an<. !uring that time, 7oldsmith has -een called a 'green imperialist' and even a 'green fascist' for his determined opposition to schemes to -ring the poor world into the mainstream of the world economic system. 1ut this wee< he will lead into the =$ offices in $ew Bor< a delegation mostly made up of Third 6orld environmentalists to present two documents. The first is a petition signed -y more than three million people calling for an emergency de-ate of the =$ 7eneral

1+ Assem-ly to rethin< international strategies for saving the rainforests. The second document is a radical manifesto agreed at a meeting in April of pressure groups from round the world under the um-rella title the 6orld Rainforest (ovement. The manifesto, 'An emergency call to action for the forests, their peoples and life on arth', threatens to split the international environment movement down the middle A at a time when the greens have won international acceptance for their case that tropical rainforests are a uniEue resource that must -e saved. ;t calls for a -an on most large aid programmes, including those designed to save the rainforests, and a -an on trade in tim-er from virgin rainforests. To many, this sounds li<e 'green imperialists' trying to pull up the ladder of economic development -efore the nations of the tropics can clam-er a-oard. The cologist added ammunition to this claim when it argued that 'Third 6orld countries must only import those manufactured goods which they can pay for without selling off their forests . . .' and that development -an<s and aid agencies should -e 'prevented, -y law if needs -e, from lending money to finance any nonessential imports and e9penditure on infrastructure over and a-ove that which Third 6orld countries can really afford financially, socially and ecologically'. This is harsh medicine, almost green monetarism. Bet the message has the support of many important pressure groups in tropical nations such as (alaysia, ;ndonesia and the "hilippines, as well as in urope and .apan. (ore conservative environmental groups, particularly those in the =%, oppose it vehemently: most of them are committed instead to campaigning strategies to 'green' the development process -y changing the policies of the 6orld 1an< and other aid agencies. !espite the efforts of a few campaigners to -ridge the gap, there is a wide gulf -etween these two views on how to save the forests and improve the lot of the poor in the Third 6orld. For 0ildyard, the real imperialists are the aid agencies. '"eople in the tropics see very dramatically what in one generation development strategies have done to their countries,' he says. 'They see an immediate choice -etween the 6estern method of development or going their own way.' 0e -elieves that the 6estern path leads to ecological and economic disaster. There is common ground around the world that something must -e done to save the rainforests. =nder sustained assault from 7oldsmith and many others, the 6orld 1an<, under its new director 1ar-er #ona-le, has announced its own conversion to green issues. The -an< has formed an environmental department to review the impact on the environment of all pro8ects that it proposes to fund. The -an< admits to many past sins. At a conference in :ondon last $ovem-er, one of its environment specialists, Roger 7oodland, spo<e of a vast pro8ect to mine iron ore in the Amazon -asin in 1razil that had turned into a 'potential disaster of gigantic proportions' when the government decided to smelt the ore in the forest, fuelling its smelters with local wood. The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

0arried -y moderate pressure groups in 6ashington, such as the 6orld Resources ;nstitute and nvironmental "rotection ;nstitute Fwhich is now merged with Friends of the arth =%G, the -an< has produced a Tropical Forest Action "lan. This admits that 'costly mista<es associated with past emphasis on massive development pro8ects must -e avoided', -ut insists that the answer to the pro-lem is more aid for development. #ona-le wants from governments, aid agencies and industrialists 'a greatly e9panded and coordinated glo-al effort to sustain tropical resources'. 6orldwide aid to preserve the forests should dou-le to D'33 million a year. 1ut the money will not -e spent on protecting virgin forests from tim-er companies. ;t will -e spent on forestry. 'The traditional approach of protecting and conserving forests as natural resources independent of their surroundings is no longer appropriate,' says the plan. The -an< and its allies among more conservative environmental groups -elieve that it is only -y ta<ing charge of the tropical forests, and -y allowing companies to ma<e money out of them, that the world can save the rainforests. 6ith the e9ception of reserves set aside for their uniEue -iological features, the forests must cease to -e a common resource. They must -e fenced, owned and managed for profit if they are to survive. 6hile 7oldsmith and the radical environmentalists want a -an on all tim-er cutting in virgin rainforests, their opponents -elieve that this would -e impossi-le to police and disastrous A a charter for the uncontrolled destruction of the forests -y poor farmers, ranchers and loggers ali<e. 6ho is right@ The ;nternational =nion for the #onservation of $ature and $atural Resources is the world's premier arena for scientific concern a-out the environment. The union's dataAcollecting offshoot, the 6orld #onservation (onitoring #entre, operates from a "orta<a-in par<ed in a lane on the edge of #am-ridge. There, (ar< #ollins is compiling a rainforest atlas of the world and pro-a-ly <nows more than anyone a-out the state of the rainforests. 6hile the world throws up its hands in horror at the -urning of the Amazon, he points to the uprooting of the trees of the "hilippines. ';t is in the most appalling state,' he says, 'disappearing at a fantastic rate. *irtually all of the pristine rainforest is gone.' 6hile almost &3 per cent of the country is technically forested, much of this land is seriously damaged. There is virtually no forest left on the central islands. #ollins is especially interested in national par<s and other areas that are of scientific interest for their genetic diversity or uniEueness. 0e fears for the national par< of (ount Apo in (indanao, the main southern island. The par< is the home of the country's national em-lem, the "hilippine eagle. ;t is now an isolated forest and people are moving into the national par<. The loss of forests in the "hilippines is -eing repeated in near-y %arawa< in (alaysia. And the logging companies, determined to meet the needs of .apan, the world's largest mar<et for tropical tim-er, have their eyes set ne9t on 1urma, :aos, $ew 7uinea Falmost '3 per cent of which is still

1, forestedG and the Amazon rainforest, which is currently -eing destroyed -y farmers rather than loggers. #ollins and the ;=#$ support the 6orld 1an<'s Tropical Forest Action "lan. 'The forest must -e managed,' says #ollins. 1ans on logging are counterproductive. 0e points to an inventory of forest resources carried out last year -y the "hilippine government with 7erman assistance. The inventory showed that on islands where logging is -anned, such as (indoro and (arinduEue, rates of deforestation have -een higher Faverage + to 2 per cent per yearG than in areas that are managed Fwhere the average is 3.2 to & per centG. The goal of the Tropical Forest Action "lan is 'sustaina-le forestry': livelihoods made out of the forest without the forest itself -eing destroyed. ;t sees managed, commercial forestry as the means to this end. For the 6orld 1an<'s allies this is a hard -ut attaina-le o-8ective. '"roperly used and managed,' says the plan, 'the tropical forests constitute a massive potential source of energy, a powerful tool in the fight to end hunger, a strong -asis for generating economic wealth and social development, and a storehouse of genetic resources to meet future needs.' The idea of sustaina-le forestry is a myth, say the radicals. They point to a recent study for the ;nternational Tropical Tim-er /rganisation, a -ody set up recently -y governments to oversee the tropical tim-er -usiness and improve its environmental record. ;t found that less than one per cent of all forest lands were 'sustaina-ly' managed A though the phrase remains notoriously undefined. ;n practice, says The cologist in an editorial this month, sustaina-le logging is unattaina-le. 'Any plan that seriously see<s to conserve -iological diversity must e9clude industrial logging from primary Fthat is, virginG rainforests,' it says. '#orruption, commercial pressures, the high rate of return e9pected on capital, the ravages of heavy machinery ma<e Fsustaina-le loggingG a pipedream,' says 0ildyard. For #ollins, people li<e 7oldsmith and 0ildyard are doing the worst possi-le thing. 0e admits that he worries at the havoc caused -y the commercialisation of the forests: 'The thought of turning mangroves into -og paper fills me with horror.' 1ut the ;=#$'s primary aim, he says, is to prevent companies from clear felling Fthat is, ripping upG rainforests to ma<e way for new plantations. ;t wants to encourage companies to adopt sustaina-le management of e9isting forests, harvesting and renewing them gradually as a longAterm investment. ';f people li<e 7oldsmith insist that sustaina-le development of natural forests is not possi-le, then economists will conclude that you cannot manage them and the companies will clear the lot for plantations. ;t's a fatal argument,' is #ollins's view. This hardly does 8ustice to The cologist's case, though. 0ildyard and 7oldsmith argue that, as sustaina-le logging is not possi-le in primary rainforest, eventually tim-er will have to come from areas planted for the purpose. The tropical rainforests are undenia-ly at a dangerous crossroads. Their tragedy is that they are -eing managed neither in the traditional manner, -y hunters and shifting cultivators ma<ing their livings from the forests without destroying them, nor -y strong state forest agencies or commercial companies willing and a-le to adopt strategies for the longAterm management of a sustaina-le resource. Argument persists -etween the two camps of conservationists a-out who is to -lame for the destruction of the rainforests. #ommercial logging is directly responsi-le for only a fifth of the loss. 1ut related activities, including road -uilding and damage to other trees as logs are hauled through the forest, increase the toll. (ore critically for the political de-ate, the construction of roads in logging areas opens up huge tracts of forests to the landless poor of the tropics, who then move in to carry on a version of the traditional method of 'shifting cultivation' that has characterised farming in the forests for thousands of years. /ften these new shifting cultivators cannot leave the forest soil long enough for it to recover its fertility -efore returning to clear the trees and farm again. And many people, thrown off farm estates or fleeing from ur-an shanty towns, have neither the s<ills nor the determination to maintain the forest environment. The analytical confusion created -y loggers 'opening up' forests for farmers has allowed two strands of argument to develop. Thus, 0ildyard uses the data to argue that the tim-er industry is responsi-le for as much as half of the destruction of the rainforestsH the Tropical Forest Action "lan, eEually correctly, can claim that 'nearly half the forests cleared in the tropics each year ma<e way for shifting cultivation'. 0ildyard concludes that commercial development of the forests is at the root of their destruction, while the 6orld 1an< deduces that lac< of commercial development, -y creating armies of landless poor, is to -lame. 0ildyard characterises the 6orld 1an<'s position as tantamount to -laming the poor for the destruction of the forests. This, The cologist says, 'is a gross and evil charge'. 1ut #ollins argues that 'countries are no longer -ig enough for shifting cultivation. 6e need gazetted, policed forests.' =nless such action is accompanied -y other measures, such as land reform to improve the lot of the landless poor, then the poor will pay the penalty for the commercial development of the forests. ;n place of the chimera of sustaina-le logging, 0ildyard offers a new future for economic development of the rainforests as 'e9tractive reserves'. The -asis for this idea is the growing realisation that forests contain other economically valua-le resources -esides tim-er. 6hen the =$'s Food and Agriculture /rganisation conducted a glo-al study of forest resources in 1)'3, it considered only tim-er. Bet a recent study of a small patch of Amazon rainforest found that fruits and late9 represented )3 per cent of the potential commercial value of the forest and wood 8ust 13 per cent. Reporting the study in $ature, #harles "eters, of the $ew Bor< 1otanical 7arden, pointed out that the most immediate 1,

12 and profita-le way to com-ine use of the Amazon forests with their conservation was to e9ploit these other resources. The same is li<ely to -e true for many other primary rainforests. 6hy are such resources not -eing developed@ "eters concluded that while tropical tim-er is a 'highly visi-le e9port commodity controlled -y the government . . . nonA wood resources are sold in local mar<ets -y an incalcula-le num-er of su-sistence farmers, forest collectors, middlemen and shopAowners'. They are 'e9tremely hard to monitor and easy to ignore in national accounting systems'. The finding is a ringing endorsement of -oth The cologist's ideas and those of #hico (endes, the former leader of the ru--er tappers in the 1razilian forest province of Acre. (endes was shot dead last !ecem-er -y commercial farmers who were angry a-out his campaigning for e9tractive reserves. The highly pu-licised murder of #hico (endes has acted as a catalyst for new calls for e9tractive reserves. The ;nternational Tropical Tim-er /rganisation, with -ac<ing from the 6orld 6ildlife Fund in the =%, has funded a development pro8ect in Acre that will try to -alance sustaina-le commercial production of tropical tim-er with the needs of indigenous peoples and the activities of local communities that e9ploit other forest products, such as natural ru--er and 1razil nuts. ;t remains to -e seen whether all these aims are compati-le. The cologist points out that the tropical tim-er industry destroys other resources, including the trees that provide fruit, nuts, medicines and gums. ven so, e9tractive reserves provide the greatest hope that the -urning of the Amazon -y poor farmers and cattle ranchers could -e halted. They offer the prospect of commercial development of the rainforest, -ut a development attuned not to the shortAterm needs of remote governments and commercial conglomerates -ut to the longAterm needs of the forest dwellers. For that to happen, research is essential. ;n a lengthy interview 8ust -efore his death, (endes argued that: 'There are an infinite num-er of natural resources in the forest . . . 6e want the government to encourage the industrialisation and mar<eting of forest products that it has always ignored in the past. The universities should spend some time researching the Amazon region. ;f this happened, and if the government too< it all seriously, then in 13 years the Amazon region would -e very rich and have an important role in the national economy.' ;t would also still have its trees. Further reading ;n the Rainforest, -y #atherine #aufield, 0einemann 1)'2H Fight for the Forest: #hico (endes in 0is /wn 6ords, :atin American 1ureau, 1 Arnwell %treet, :ondon #1. nature' swaps. The intriguing idea has -een promoted most assiduously -y the 6orld 6ildlife Fund F66FG in the =%. ;t suggests that poor nations that are heavily in de-t to the rich world's -an<s should -e relieved of part of that de-t in return for promoting conservation in their own countries. %o far, most of the deals have -een small and ad hoc, struc< often as a result of individual initiatives -y people such a Thomas :ove8oy at the 66F. ;n (ay this year, for instance, #osta Rica agreed to spend D14 million on its 7uanacaste $ational "ar<, in return for -eing relieved of D&, million of de-t. 1ut there is hope in the =% that huge deals could -e struc< in future. At (argaret Thatcher's heavily pu-licised meeting on climate change in April this year, .immy 7oldsmith proposed the esta-lishment of an international organisation Fhe called it ForestcoG that would systematically -uy up de-ts and stri<e deals with de-tor nations in which they would pay the interest on the de-t -y 'protecting their forests for the good of all'. (any in the poor world have reacted angrily to these ideas. %ome governments, such as 1razil, see them as an attac< on their national sovereignty A an attempt to anne9 the rainforests. ven pressure groups in the poor world, which are an9ious to protect the rainforests, oppose the swaps. They say the de-ts were illegitimately incurred during the 1)43s, when -an<s were desperate to lend their huge reserves of petrodollars. '#an't pay, won't pay' sums up their attitude. This response has em-arrassed $ic< 0ildyard and Teddy 7oldsmith. ;n '%ave the Forests: %ave the "lanet', pu-lished in a special issue of The cologist in 1)'4, they argued strongly for such swaps as the first stage of a 'plan of action' for the forests. 1ut they met a wall of opposition from their allies in the Third 6orld. :ast April's meeting of the 6orld Rainforest (ovement, which adopted most of The cologist's other ideas in its declaration, specifically opposed de-t for nature swaps. That -rought anger from other Euarters A such as >oy Thompson at Friends of the arth =>, who tries to steer a course -etween the various factions in his rainforest campaigning. A revised version of the manifesto ma<es no mention of swaps at all. $onetheless, 0ildyard still -ac<s the idea. 0e is, he says, currently as<ing groups in countries such as 1razil and Thailand if there are any <inds of de-t swaps that they would support. For 0ildyard and Teddy 7oldsmith, the <ey to successful swaps is that they should -e '-ig and systematic': on the scale, in other words, of the de-ts that started the trou-le. 'The current pro-lem with the swaps,' he says, 'is that -ecause they are so small, they do not challenge the development process. They shore it up -y rescuing Third 6orld economies. :arger deals could alter the development process itself.' That may not -e Euite .immy 7oldsmith's idea. 0e -elieves that the swaps will 'help the economies of the host nations off the roc<s and reintroduce them into the

The 7oldsmith connection A swapping de-ts for nature


T0 6/R:!% of Teddy 7oldsmith and his financier -rother, .immy, come together in the idea of 'de-t for The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

1? world economy', precisely what his -rother does not want. Features $ew %cientist, &4 (ay 1)'), *ol.1&& $o.1??? 1oa *ista. Five research programmes investigated the island's ecology, forest regeneration, soils and hydrology, medical entomology and patterns of land development -eyond (araca's protected -oundary. :ast month's conference gave a snapshot of more than )3 scientific papers and -oo<s which are in the pipeline or pu-lished, ma<ing (araca the most e9haustively surveyed area in northern Amazonia. 0emming, whose e9perience of research in 1razil dates -ac< &2 years, was delighted at the success of the field wor<. 0e says it was hailed within 1razil as a model for constructive, nonApolitical cooperation in a country which is hard pressed to finance such e9periments singleAhanded. 1ut the 1razilian government is growing less inclined to listen to such tal<. $ationalist fever is rising as officials fume at foreign headlines that say the Amazon rainforest is a world resource, and that the world does not li<e what 1razil is doing to it. ;nternational pressure has already forced the suspension of multimillion dollar loans to 1razil from the 6orld 1an< to construct a massive hydroelectric scheme on the Mingu River. The scheme would flood ;ndian homelands and drown thousands of hectares of forest. And critics -lame government ta9 incentives Fnow a-andonedG for tempting poor migrants to move into forest areas. There they clear the land only to find that the soils, without the forest to recycle nutrients, can offer little nourishment to crops. Today, scientists are not welcome in the Amazon. An official t 1razil's m-assy in :ondon said: ';t is a very -ad time to try to go to the Amazon. They are turning down every-ody now. There is no dou-t that they are very against the idea of people doing any <ind of research there.' %he added that all it would ta<e for a complete shutdown of the northern parts of the Amazon would -e for the army to decide it was a sensitive zone. %uch a move is not inconceiva-le. %cientists apart, in the past year, 1razil's latest gold rush has focused on the northern territories. Thousands of lawless prospectors have swarmed into the region, clashing with ;ndian communities and ignoring land rights. Although the world has developed an intense interest on tropical forests and their future, very little is yet <nown a-out them. A pro8ect such as (araca was -ound to ma<e a vast contri-ution to e9isting <nowledge. And it did. ven within the vast e9panse of the Amazon, the nature of the forest is far from uniform, -ut depends on local soils, water supply, climate and so on. Regional data are worth a lot. /n (araca, the vital role of tropical forests as a source of new drugs for medicine was underlined -y the discovery that a certain -ean tree A Ale9a canaracunensis A is dominant at the west end of the island. 7wil :ewis, one of the e9perts from >ew 1otanical 7ardens in 1?

:ast e9it to the Amazon: Foreign scientists are -eing -anned from the Amazon rainforest A 8ust as they are -eginning to discover the forest's secrets ! 11; (A#>:;$
A$ ;$#R A%;$7:B 9enopho-ic 1razilian government is -loc<ing new research and 8eopardising longAterm studies -y 1ritish scientists into the environment. 1ut the hardening attitudes coincide with a flood of new results from one of the -iggest research programmes ever conducted in the Amazon, the (araca Rainforest "ro8ect. (araca is a large island on the River Amazon. :ast month, 1ritish and 1razilian scientists from the pro8ect, which completed its field phase a year ago, met to present their results in (anaus, the capital of Amazonia. The conference, ironically, underlined the value to 1razil of cooperation on field wor<. !iscoveries made during the pro8ect include a tree whose sap contains a drug with potential in the search for a cure for A;!%, a disease as rife in the -ig cities of 1razil as almost anywhere in the world. %tudies of land development have pointed out farming practices that are doomed to failure, and those with more chance of success. And researchers have identified scores of species that are new to science. 1ut now studies of forest regeneration on (araca could -e at ris<, and a Euestion mar< hangs over plans for scientists to return to the most remote parts of the island to e9tend their surveys. The current political climate is particularly frustrating for .ohn 0emming, director of the Royal 7eographical %ociety. The society was invited to carry out research on (araca -y 1razil's environment secretariat F% (AG in 1)', A an invitation highly unli<ely to have -een issued in today's atmosphere. 6hen the pro8ect -egan in 1)'4, with 0emming at the helm, it had grown into a multidisciplinary venture, com-ining the resources of the R7%, the % (A and the ;$"A, 1razil's national Amazon research institute. (araca A a riverine island a-out the size of the ;sle of 6ight A is a nature reserve run -y the % (A. ;t lies on the -oundary -etween forest and savannah grassland in the northern territory of Roraima, less than 133 <ilometres from the *enezuelan -order. (araca is not rainforest in the strict sense, since it has a mar<ed dry season. 'An island of immense diversity and full of surprises' is how 0emming descri-es it. !uring 1+ months of field wor<, 123 1razilian and 1ritish scientists made the -oneAsha<ing, fourAhour 8ourney -y truc< and -oat from the territory's capital of

14 :ondon wor<ing on the survey, discovered the (araca Ale9a, and had good cause to -e e9cited. %even of the 11 <nown Ale9a species Fincluding A. canaracunensisG contain castanospermine A a plant al<aloid which is -eing tested as a potential drug to fight A;!%. The drug is under trial in the =% and derivatives of castanospermine are -eing modified and tested at -oth /9ford and #am-ridge universities. 6hat particularly pleases :ewis is that studies on the (araca Ale9a have shown for the first time that the drug is found in the tree's sap, and not 8ust its seeds, flowers and leaves. This means that it could -e o-tained -y 'tapping' in much the same way as ru--er. The pro8ect has helped to identify a potentially valua-le compound which the 1razilians could harvest in a sustaina-le way. #uriously, the native ;ndians A a great source of information on medicinal plants A have no use for Ale9a, and no name for the tree. For :ewis, finding Ale9a on (araca strengthens the arguments for conserving tropical forests and 8ustifies research in them. Future policies for colonisation in the state of Roraima stands to -enefit from the land development programme. The population there has risen sharply in recent years, with migrants ta<ing advantage of government colonisation schemes and an improved road networ<. According to Tom !argie of the =niversity of %heffield, who used :andsat satellite photographs to monitor changes in land use, forest clearance remains relatively limited in Roraima, although the effects of colonisation have made their mar<. 'The agricultural frontier is now up to the island of (araca,' says !argie. '%atellite images from 1)4' and 1)'2 show in several places large areas of forest clearance with the conversion of land to cattle pasture and, in some areas of river flood plains, to rice production.' ;nterviews with ranchers, coupled with soil studies -y !argie's colleagues support the view that replacing forest with cattle is not a good idea here. '6hen forests are cleared and converted to pasture for cattle, soil compaction increases, the nutrient levels drop very Euic<ly and the Euality of pastures declines,' says !argie. 0is colleague, !uncan (c7regor, adds: 'At the moment the cattle density has fallen dramatically to one head per hectare or even less. /n one ranch, they were down to half a head per hectare. ;t's 8ust not economically via-le. 'According to !argie, some colonies are more productive and less damaging than others. 0e cites some large areas of swampy soils near 1oa *ista which are -eing converted successfully to rice production. '; hope that the :andsat pictures might show areas where this rice production could -e tried in con8unction with drier areas, so that particular types of settlement could have potential for growth,' he says. /ther scientists involved in the (araca pro8ect loo<ed for the first time at the loss of soil nutrients, caused -y The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz erosion in Amazonia. %heila Ross from the =niversity of 1ristol came to the conclusion that the loss of nutrients goes hand in hand with erosion, and that 'as soon as you start removing the vegetation cover, you start incurring erosion'. Ross hopes her findings might offer positive suggestions to help to preserve soil nutrients in colonised areas in the future. :eaving some trees, or planting coffee or cocoa -ushes in cleared areas would provide some cover for the soil, for instance. A clampdown on visas for scientists would hit hardest the pro8ect team wor<ing on forest regeneration. (ost of their wor< is long term. %o far they have little in the way of results, and will need to return to (araca over the ne9t 13 years and more to monitor their wor<. The team has made clearings in the forest and watched how the forest -egins to grow -ac<. /ne of the team, Ro-ert (arrs from 1ritain's ;nstitute of Terrestrial cology, studied the -rea<down of organic material in the soil and the releases of nitrogen, an essential element for plant growth. 0e can already conclude that the rates of nitrification in the soil are low in (araca forest areas, and lower still in the savannah soil. 'The ma9imum rates on (araca are found only during the transition -etween the wet and dry seasons,' he said. ';n some respects this ma<es it a more fragile system. ;f the forest is cut, it might ta<e a lot longer for it to grow -ac< than in areas where there was not this seasonal effect.' $ew species were discovered throughout the year on (araca. ;nverte-rates, not surprisingly, headed the list. :ise Arno, from the ;$"A, collected +33 species of spider, almost &3 or which are new to science. Another entomologist from the ;$"A recorded ?3 new species of insect. (ar< /'%hea, the pro8ect's herpetologist, lists over 133 species of amphi-ian and reptile on the island, and thin<s he may have found new species or su-species of sna<e, lizard and amphis-aenid A a legless -urrowing creature. The ;$"A's Rogeiro 7ri-al and a 1ritish specialist in -ats, Fif Ro-inson, counted ,' species of -at, ma<ing (araca richer in those mammals than any tropical forest. And the world's highest density of peccary Fa wild -oarG was added to the (araca file. *ictor "yA!aniel, also from the ;$"A, too< a closer loo< at how the %imuliidae family of -lac< flies transmit diseases. =ntil recently, they did not infect humans in the region. 0e found a -ewildering num-er of species which are now vectors for river -lindness. The disease, which was first noticed in %outh America among the Banomani ;ndians, is thought to have -een unwittingly introduced -y missionaries from Africa. 0emming has no dou-ts that the (araca "ro8ect will -enefit 1razil. "yA!aniel says he can understand 1razilian feelings, that other countries are now

1' preaching green policies which they have failed to practise on their home ground. And he is adamant that although (araca was a 8oint e9pedition, how the 1razilians decide to use the results must -e a matter for them. '6hat ; regard as so very important is that the main presentation of results should ta<e place at the ;$"A, in (anaus, in "ortuguese,' said "yA!aniel, referring to last wee<'s conference. This will also lead to all research results -eing pu-lished, at least in summary, in the ;$"A's 8ournal, Acta Amazonica. '$one of the lessons learnt and none of the data generated from (araca will -e applied -y 1razilians unless it is presented to them in their own language and in their own country,' said 0emming. '6e were trying to find out more a-out how the forest wor<s, a-out forest settlers and ways to regenerate forest which has -een destroyed. 1ut no statement has -een made a-out how the 1razilians should treat their forest.' '; thin< the information stands a much -etter chance of -eing used -ecause of the way we are presenting it,' he said. 0emming maintains that the results of the land development programme are '<eenly awaited -y 1razil's own internal development agencies'. 6hat they do with the information in shaping future policy remains to -e seen. Figures: "an American highway 1)') Review $ew %cientist, 1' August 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14+3 ordinary people whose roots stretch -ac< ,33 years are getting suc<ed into ur-an sEualor. The l !orado that many dreamed of has eluded almost all. The gold of ;taitu-a has ended up in a -an< vault, pro-a-ly somewhere in %witzerland, leaving -ehind fish poisoned with the mercury afterwash of the gold prospectors. 1ut what else can a goldAdigger at the %erra "elada gold fields do to earn a living than get himself ca<ed, or even drowned, in pits of mud@ 6hen the diggers demonstrated for -etter conditions two years ago they were put down with -ullets and tear gas. The law of the dollar is the only law. *irtually all fires in the Amazon are illegal, -ut each year hundreds are started deli-erately. The rights of ;ndians and their homelands are supposed to -e enshrined in law, -ut it is easy to -end the law when land is at sta<e. Bet the conservation effort is laugha-le. The 1razilian forest service has )33 wor<ers for an area larger than the whole of urope. !eforestation and farming is even encouraged, -y providing land as a ta9 haven and through various legal devices. 6ith 1333 per cent inflation, owning land is a good way of holding onto a nest egg. Another good reason is to help service a D143 -illion foreign de-t. 1ig (outh is full of people that $ugent and /cean met: street traders selling anything from se9 to -a-y anteaters, fatAcats -y swimming pools doing deals on Amazonia, and gold miners and tree fellers. This is where $ugent is at his most engaging, as he tells the human stories that e9plain so much of the Amazon's downfall. =nless these :atin people, as well as the ;ndians, are helped to a -etter life, then conservation efforts will continue to flounder. These people need food, wor< and all the other necessities of life. 6e need to find a way of e9ploiting the Amazon's resources for them, as well as campaigning to uphold ;ndian rights and to preserve the rainforest. (ultinational -usinesses and wea< 1razilian governments are -lamed, -ut so much of the destruction is driven -y a world economic system that is crippling 1razil and much of the rest of the Third 6orld. =nfortunately, $ugent o-scures his argument -y attac<ing his other pet hates: the ecoA-a--le of the media 8umping onto a new -andwagonH %ting and the other cele-rities turning the Amazon into an entertainment showH and the greens of the 6est -eing too naive. Bet this does nothing to detract from the things he as an anthropologist and traveller is o-viously well trained for: o-serving and analysing what is going wrong with Amazonian society. Features $ew %cientist, 1+ .anuary 1))3, *ol.1&2 $o.1?))

Review: Travels in the other Amazon "A=: %;(/$%


1ig (outh A The Amazon spea<s -y % $ugent and 0. /cean, Fourth state, pp &,', "ounds 1?.)2 60AT ;% the Amazon@ A vast and steamy 8ungle from Raiders of the :ost Ar<@ A scene of devastation from the merald Forest@ The real Amazon is far more comple9, -ut the halfAtruths and myths of the movies tend to stic<. %o here in 1ig (outh the yawning gape of the other, :atin, Amazon is e9plored through the traveller and anthropologist %tephen $ugent and the s<etches of artist 0umphrey /cean. The result is part witty travelogue and part hardAhitting political analysis. $ugent starts -y de-un<ing a few myths. For e9ample, can the piranha flay a human -ody in 13 seconds flat@ $o, he says, -ut they ma<e a very good snac<. Then there is the -elief that the rainforest is an untouched 'natural' paradise. $ot so, he tells usH humans have -een e9ploiting much of the forest for centuries. The Amazon that $ugent found is more li<e Rio de .aneiro than 8ungle: poverty, lawlessness, social outcasts and the filthy rich. (ost Amazonians live in highArise cities such as 1elem and %antarem, which have overrun the Euaint old shanty towns he <new from 13 years earlier. The gringos and the 0ilton have arrived, and the 1'

Fruits of the rainforest: ;ce creams, -ody creams, -ath oils and sweets A these are the latest fruits of the rainforest. As new mar<ets develop, fruits and nuts will soon -e worth

1)

more than tim-er and the future of the forest will -e more secure 70;:: A$ "RA$#
1;/!;* R%;TB is a -uzz word. =ntil recently, few people outside -iological circles <new the wordH now it crops up in almost all discussions a-out the conservation of tropical rainforest. ;t is a term devised to include the different ways in which living organisms have diversified and it has three principal components: species diversity A the total num-er of species within an ecosystemH genetic diversity A the variation that occurs within a species that gives it the a-ility to evolve to adapt to new conditionsH and ecosystem diversity A the variety of communities of different species growing and interacting in a comple9, interdependent we-. =nderstanding -iodiversity is crucial to the management, utilisation and conservation of the -iological resources of our planet. The threat of losing species and ha-itats has driven many -iologists to concentrate on -iodiversity and, as a result, we are -eginning to accumulate a mass of data that demonstrate the amazing amount of diversity that e9ists in tropical rainforests. As rainforests contain more species than any other ha-itat on our planet, understanding, cataloguing and protecting them is essential for our future e9istence. To those who come from the temperate regions of the world, the phenomenal species diversity of tropical rainforest is overwhelming. 6e are used to forests where a single species such as oa<, maple or pine dominates. ;n most tropical rainforests, no single species ta<es over and a great variety e9ist side -y side. The forest with the greatest species diversity A as far as we <now A is at Banomono, near ;Euitos in the Amazonian region of "eru. There, in 1 hectare, Alwyn 7entry, a -otanist from the (issouri 1otanical 7arden, found +33 species of trees and lianas with a diameter of 13 centimetres or more. $ear-y, at (ishana, on the Rio $anay, &)2 species grew in a hectare of forest on e9tremely poor, sandy soil. Although Banomono holds the record num-er of species, tropical rainforests are more varia-le in their diversity than any other ha-itat. !etailed studies of 11 sites around the world show a variation from '4 to +33 species per hectareFsee Ta-le 1G. The actual num-er of species on a hectare varies with the type of soil and especially with the amount of rain that falls in the region. The more humid areas of rainforest without a pronounced dry season, such as those around ;Euitos, "eru, or in the #hoco of #olom-ia, tend to -e more diverse than those with less rainfall and a more seasonal climate. The hectare at Banomono with +33 species contained ?3? individual trees. At that sort of density, there is no room for one species to dominate: 1)2 of the +33 species F?2 per centG were represented -y a single individual, and only ,2 species had more than two individuals on the hectare. This large num-er of rare species in any sample is typical of all plots studied in the Amazon. The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

There are usually a few species that are commoner in each plot, however. For e9ample, in a +Ahectare plot at / !eserto on the Iingu River, in 1razil, there were 1,&3 trees representing &?2 species, of which 1&2 were represented -y a single individual, even in this larger sample area. /n the other hand, several species were a-undant. The legume tree #enostigma macrophyllum had 1', individualsH the -a-assu palm, /r-ignya phalerata, 4)H the wild cacau, Theo-roma speciosum, ,', and $eea altissima ,2. There is considera-le clumping of these and a few other common species on that plot. $ow that -otanists have made inventories of a sizea-le num-er of plots in tropical rainforest, we find, in moving from area to area, that different species are a-undant or rare in each plot. %pecies that are rare in one plot tend to grow in clusters elsewhere in the forest. Any planning for conservation needs to consider this population structure of forests carefully in order to preserve genetic diversity as well as species diversity. The 1&2 species represented -y a single individual on the Iingu River must occur in very low density in that regionH any reserve esta-lished there would not conserve an adeEuate genetic diversity of those rare species. ;t would, however, include a more via-le population of #enostigma macrophyllum and the other commoner species. %o far, we have dealt only with the diversity of trees larger than 13 centimetres in diameter. Tropical rainforests contain a wealth of her-s, of epiphytes that grow on other plants and parasitic and saprophytic species. These add considera-ly to the diversity of the forest. ;n the Rio "alenEue Reserve in western cuador, 7entry and #alaway !odson, of the (issouri 1otanical 7arden, found +?2 species of vascular plants in a tenth of a hectare Fsee Ta-le &G. And in the forests of #osta Rica Timothy 6hitmore, a 1ritish -otanist from the =niversity of /9ford, and colleagues from -oth 1ritain and #osta Rica, found &++ species in 133 sEuare metres. ;n #osta Rica, an area half the size of a tennis court contained a-out a si9th as many species as the total flora of the 1ritish ;sles. The tiny Rio "alenEue Reserve, which covers only 1.4 sEuare <ilometres of rainforest, contains 13++ species For 4' per cent of the 1ritish floraG. The Amazon ;ndians and other rainforest peoples have learnt to adapt to the phenomenal species diversity of their forests. They have found uses for many of the plant species >> that surround them. %ome recent studies show the full e9tent to which the ;ndians use rainforest trees. Two researchers, one a -otanist, the other an anthropologist, made inventories of the plants in 1A hectare plots of forest in the territories of four tri-es of ;ndians, and then recorded which species the ;ndians employ for one purpose or another. 1rian 1oom, of the $ew Bor< 1otanical 7arden, wor<ed first with the #haco-o ;ndians of 1olivia. 0is sample hectare contained ?,) trees of ), species with a diameter of 13 centimetres or more. The ;ndians had uses for 4?

&3 species F4'.4 per centG either as food or in -uilding, crafts, medicines or commerce. ;n a similar study of the "anare ;ndians of *enezuela, 1oom found that this tri-e used +, of the 4, species F,'.? per centG on the study plot. 6illiam 1alee, an anthropologist from the 7oeldi $atural 0istory (useum in 1elem, 1razil, studied the >a'apor and Tem-e ;ndians of "ara, 1razil. 0is results were similar. The >a'apor use 4? of )) species of trees F4?.' per centG, and the Tem-e 4+ of 11) species F?1.+ per centG. The spectre of monoculture "eople who depend on so many of the species of trees in the forest will hardly want to destroy more than the a-solute minimum necessary for their agriculture. The settler from outside the region, on the other hand, is perple9ed -y such diversity and tends to destroy rather than use the forest. 6hen settlers move in they put monocultures of cash crops or grassland in place of the speciesArich forest, with its high productivity and -iomass. 9tracting tim-er is also a poor way to use the forest: -ecause the forest is so diverse, trees that ma<e good tim-er are usually scattered over a wide area and are often uneconomic to fell. The Amazon ;ndian's agricultural systems include genetic diversity as well as species diversity. ach tri-e has a large num-er of varieties of most of the crops they plant. very ;ndian tri-e ; have visited has many named varieties of manioc F(anihot esculentaG, their staple source of car-ohydrate. The .arawara ;ndians of the "urus River in 1razil, for e9ample, cultivate && different types of maniocH the anthropologist .anet #hernela, from #olum-ia =niversity in $ew Bor<, found that the Tu<aro ;ndians of the upper Rio $egro have no fewer than 1,3 varietiesH and .ames 1oster, an anthropologist from the =niversity of >entuc<y, :e9ington, names 23 varieties used -y the Aguaruna people of "eru. The ;ndians can readily identify these varieties and then cultivate them for their different properties. /ne variety is ready to harvest after si9 months, another after nine months, another after a year, and so on. %ome varieties are -etter for ma<ing farinha flour and others for tapioca or gum. !ifferent varieties grow -etter in different soils. The ;ndians also ta<e into account a variety's yield, how well it <eeps in storage, or how suita-le the leaves are as a vegeta-le. The Amazon is home not only to the ;ndians -ut also to the ca-oclos, longAterm settlers with a mi9ture of ;ndian and foreign -lood. These are the ru--er tappers and gatherers of 1razil nuts. Faced with largeAscale deforestation -y development pro8ects and colonisation schemes, the ru--er tappers have -een fighting for their forests and for the right to maintain their livelihood from them. Their fight reached the front pages of the world's newspapers when Francisco F#hicoG (endes, president of the ru--er tappers' union of Acre, in 1razil, was assassinated in $ovem-er 1)''. 0e and his union had challenged the cattle ranchers who were cutting down the forests where the ru--er tappers wor<ed. &3

The worldwide attention that followed the murder of (endes has resulted in the esta-lishment of several 'e9tractive reserves' in the 1razilian Amazon. 1ut if the economy of these reserves were to -e -ased solely on two products, ru--er and 1razil nuts, it would afford a meagre e9istence to the tappers. The ru--er mar<et in 1razil is already -olstered -y government su-sidies. ;f the ;ndians have so many uses for the plants, there must -e other mar<eta-le products in the rainforest to add to the tappers' income. The ca-oclos have harvested and mar<eted in a small way several other rainforest products, such as ton<a -eans, copai-a oleoresin and the resin of 8ato-a or the 0ymenaea tree. (any of the products they are harvesting have lost much of their commercial value -ecause synthetic su-stitutes or alternative plant sources are easier to o-tain. The restoration of a mar<et for these products and the development of mar<ets for new products is an urgent priority to improve the lot of the ru--er tappers in places such as Acre and Rondonia, in 1razil. #harles "eters, of the $ew Bor< 1otanical 7arden ;nstitute of conomic 1otany, and Alwyn 7entry and Ro-ert (endelssohn, of the %chool of Forestry of Bale =niversity, recently pu-lished in $ature the results of a survey that shows the huge potential of products from an intact forest. "eters and his colleagues made a detailed valuation of the mar<eta-le products in a hectare of rainforest at (ishana, near ;Euitos, "eru. Their study site contained &42 species and ',& trees with a diameter of 13 centimetres or more. /f these, 4& species F&?.& per centG, represented -y +23 individuals F,1.? per centG, yielded products with a possi-le mar<et value in ;Euitos. The eleven species of mar<eta-le fruit could yield an annual crop with a value of D?23 Fat 1)'4 pricesG, which would cost D&23 to transport to mar<et, leaving a profit of D,33. Ru--er late9 yields D23, minus D&' in e9penses, or D&& in profitH and selective logging of tim-er could yield a net revenue of D+13 per cutting cycle. The $et "resent *alue F$"*G of the forest at (ishana is D?'&3 per hectare. This is compared with the $"* of D+1', for the monoculture plantations of 7melina ar-orea at the .ari forestry pro8ect in 1razil, and of D&)?3 for a good Amazon cattle pasture. ven those of an economic disposition point to the logic of e9tractive forests which could earn so much more than schemes that deforest the area. A challenge to science and industry today will -e the development of new products, other than tim-er, that can -e e9tracted from the forest without felling, and that will have a reasona-le mar<et price in the developed world. /ne pioneer in the search for such new commodities is .ason #lay, an anthropologist who is director of research at #ultural %urvival, an organisation -ased in (assachusetts that campaigns for the rights of indigenous peoples. #lay is wor<ing with several companies to develop new cosmetics, ice creams and sweets from sustaina-le products of the rainforest. 6hen ; met #lay on a visit to 1razil last August, he gave me a suitcase of Amazonian scents and cosmetics to ta<e to

&1 The 1ody %hop, a 1ritish company, for product development. #lay's efforts are -eginning to pay off: in the =%, 1en N .erry's 0omeAmade ;ce #ream has 8ust launched its latest flavour A Rainforest #runch, made with 1razil nuts and cashew nuts collected -y people living in the Amazon. ;n 1ritain, ; am wor<ing with a company called The Food 1usiness and with an ice cream ma<er to ma<e rainforest products. /ne of the ways to preserve the -iological diversity of tropical rainforests will -e to harness it, rather than to preserve it in untoucha-le -iological reserves. Reserves must always -e given a high priority, -ut ideally, they will -e surrounded -y areas where people can harvest the plants, and perhaps some of the animals. (any of the potential nonAtim-er products from rainforest already have small local mar<ets. %ome were used in the past -ut have -een replaced -y synthetic materials. A good e9ample of this is copai-a -alsam, which is tapped, li<e ru--er, from the trun< of trees of the genus #opaifera, a mem-er of the legume family. The ;ndians have long used this oleoresin as a medicine and a scent. ;n the past, the varnish industry used it e9tensively, and it has always retained a small mar<et Fresin worth D233,333 was e9ported from 1razil in 1)'2G. (elvin #alvin, the $o-el laureate, suggested that copai-a -alsam would ma<e a good fuel -ecause it -urns well. Although never li<ely to -ecome important as a fuel, there could -e a greater mar<et for it in cosmetics or if its use in varnishes were renewed. The -est products for e9traction on a sustaina-le -asis are the fruits of trees, -ecause removing a large part of the harvest does not harm the forest. (any tree fruits other than 1razil nuts could provide a good income if the mar<et is developed. The oilArich fruits of many palms are li<ely contenders. %ome palms have the added advantage that they grow in natural groupings in stands with fewer other species. :arge areas are covered -y pure stands of (auritia palm, for e9ample, whose fruit has an edi-le pulp rich in carotene which is used to flavour ice cream in "eru. The <ernel of the palm nut is rich in oil, and the leaves provide a soft fi-re that is used e9tensively for handicrafts in eastern Amazonia. ; have seen 13,333 hectares of this palm in the .utai river region of Amazonas %tate in 1razil. The identification and harvesting of such natural single species stands is another way in which to ma<e the Amazon forests economically productive. The -a-assu palm F/r-ignya phalerataG also grows in large natural stands in the transition region -etween the Amazon rainforest and the savannahs of central 1razil. ;t, too, has many uses. The <ernel of the fruit produces an oil identical to coconut oil, and which is -oth com-usti-le and comesti-le. The <ernel is surrounded -y a woody shell, or endocarp, which ma<es good charcoal and can -e used directly as a fuel. %ome factories, including a large -rewery in the city of %ao :uis, the capital of (aranhao %tate in 1razil, now fuel their -oilers with -a-assu shells. 1a-assu shells are a sustaina-le resource, -ecause the palm produces new fruit. The factories that -urn -a-assu shells no longer cut The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz the wood of the coastal mangrove forests, which were -eing destroyed to provide firewood. The woody shell of the -a-assu nut is enclosed -y an outer mesocarp that is rich in car-ohydrate and can -e ground into a flour. The andiro-a tree F#arapa EuianensisG, a mem-er of the mahogany family, also produces a large oily seed, which native people use medicinally and in cosmetics. The fruits fall to the ground and are easily gathered, ma<ing the seed an o-vious candidate for the development of new cosmetics. To ensure a future for much of the Amazon rainforest that remains intact, we must stri<e a -alance -etween conservation and e9ploitation of -iological diversity. #an we emulate the ;ndians and develop uses for many species@ The very future of many rainforest species that we have already turned into industrial crops, such as ru--er, cocoa, vanilla and Euinine, may well depend on the conservation of the genetic material that resides in the wild relatives of those species. 1iological diversity must -e used and preserved. ;f we fail in the crucial tas< we will reduce the options of future generations to produce new medicines, foods, fi-res, tim-ers and many other -ounties of the rainforest. Ta-le: 1 Tree species diversity for some tropical rainforests $um-er of (inimum :ocality species diameter FcmG Banomono, "eru +33 13 (ishana, "eru &)2 13 .ohore, (alaysia &&4 13 (ulu, %arawa< &&+ 13 #ocha #ashu, "eru 1') 13 (anaus, 1razil 14) 12 Tam-opata, "eru 1?' 13 Iingu River, 1razil 1?&,1++, 11' 13 1reves, 1razil 124 13 /veng, 7a-on 1+1 13 1elem, 1razil '4 13 Ta-le &: Total species richness of selected 3.1 hectare plots $um-er of $um-er of trees N :ocality species lianas O &.2cm diameter Rio "alenEue, +?2 11) cuador #entinela, cuador A1,3 (ishana, "eru A&,) Banomono, "eru A&+3, &1& Tam-opata, "eru A121 Tutunendo, #olom-ia A&2' 1a8o #alima, A&?2 #olom-ia 7hana &1& 1?2 Further reading 1iodiversity, edited -y . /. 6ilson, $ational Academy "ress 1)'', distri-uted in urope -y .ohn 6iley. Fragile :ands of :atin America: %trategies

&& for %ustaina-le !evelopment, edited -y .ohn /. 1rowder, 6estview "ress 1)'). Features $ew %cientist, 1? !ecem-er 1)'), *ol.1&, $o.1?)2 and swiftly considering the num-er of agencies, often with conflicting interests, involved in the process. The amount of land transferred and the speed of the transaction has ta<en even the ;ndian communities in the Amazon -y surprise. (any people are as<ing why the #olom-ian government acted so generously when it was under little pressure to do so. %ome critics in #olom-ia maintain that a -etter policy would have -een to <eep options open -y granting some land to the ;ndian communities -ut <eeping the remainder in government hands as forest reserve. Then, should the land -e reEuired for development in the future, it would at least -e availa-le. The reasons for the government's actions are comple9, -ut revolve around two factors. The first is legal: the lands 'handed -ac<' already -elonged to the ;ndians. The second concerns the conservation of the rainforest. The most effective way to protect the country's rainforest is to place it in the care of the people who <now how to use it without disrupting the ecosystem irretrieva-ly. :i<e other 0ispanoAAmerican countries, #olom-ia inherited %panish colonial law. After the #onEuest, municipal communities were entitled to esta-lish some democratic and independent status within the state under the governorship of a ca-ildo. At the same time, certain territories were acceded to indigenous communities, who adopted the ca-ildo system as a means of complying with colonial law while retaining some control over their own affairs. Although colonists have ta<en over much of the ;ndians' land in the past few centuries, in theory those lands still -elong to the original indigenous communities. #olom-ian law recognises that the state has no right to lands that were never conEuered, and that it has a duty to return those lands to the original communities. Eually, the state has a duty to compensate those peasants and landowners who are living on what is now deemed ;ndian territory. 6here colonisation has -een heavy, as in the densely populated regions of the Andes such as the #auca, the process of 'cleaning the land', as the ;ndians see it, can -e a slow and e9pensive one. The same legal principles apply to the Amazon region -ut, for the most part, the Amazon was never conEuered and for the most part it is free of colonists. The past few decades have seen a fundamental change in attitude towards the ;ndians and their way of life. ;n the 1)23s, the government was paternalistic and intent on integrating the ;ndians into the white system. The government has now a-andoned this approach: #olom-ian law states uneEuivocally that indigenous peoples have the right to follow their own customs and traditions Fincluding those aspects that relate to their own systems of authorityG, to develop their own education programmes in their own languages, and to organise their own health services. #olom-ia, again through the resurrection of colonial law, has developed a legal mechanism for ensuring that the title to land is permanent. This protection is achieved through the concept of the resguardo. The law holds that the indigenous people living within and utilising the area &&

7uardians of the Amazon: Things are loo<ing up in the Amazon forests of #olom-ia. 1y handing over huge areas of rainforest to the local ;ndians, the government is providing the most effective form of conservation for -oth forest and traditional culture " T R 1=$BAR!
;$ A"R;: 1)'', deep in the heart of the #olom-ian Amazon, at :a #horrera, the "resident of #olom-ia, *irgilio 1arco, told the leaders of the ;ndian communities: '; have come to give you some good news, a word of truth: at last the land which is yours is yours.' 6ith that, he handed -ac< ? million hectares of the "redio "utumayo, the region where, at the turn of the century, the ;ndians had suffered untold atrocities at the hands of the AngloA"eruvian ru--er company. The policy of turning over the lands to the indigenous populations of the #olom-ian Amazon has continued apace during the four years of 1arco's presidency, spurred on -y the current head of ;ndigenous Affairs, the anthropologist (artin von 0ilde-rand. Today, more than 1' million hectares of the #olom-ian Amazon -elong to some 43 333 ;ndians of more than 23 ethnic groups, ma<ing the region the largest contiguous territory in the world -elonging 'legally' to tri-al peoples. ;n addition, with the creation this autumn of the 1 million hectare #hiri-iEuete national par<, the #olom-ian government now has 2.+ million hectares of national par<s in its region of the Amazon, some of which overlaps ;ndian territory. /f a total of +' million hectares of the Amazon, &&.2 million hectares A an area almost as large as 1ritain A are now 'protected' either as ;ndian lands or national par<s. That leaves some 13 million hectares of uninha-ited, untouched land without title and ? million hectares, mainly in the foothills of the Andes, which over the past ,3 years have -een colonised and deforested -y immigrants from the Altiplano, the high Andean plateau. !espite aid from the 6orld 1an< and other aid agencies, the colonised areas show the classic signs of ecological devastation, with eroded slopes, silted up, unnaviga-le rivers and pro-lems with flooding and dried up streams. As in much of :atin America, most of the colonised land is turned over to unproductive cattle ranching. #olom-ia's policy for protecting the Amazon and its indigenous peoples stands out sharply against the colonisation and e9ploitation ta<ing place in the Amazon of neigh-ouring 1razil and in other countries party to the Amazon Treaty of #ooperation. (oreover, #olom-ia has carried out its programme without any e9ternal pressure. The initiative has -een entirely its own, and the handover has gone remar<a-ly smoothly

&+ of a resguardo are the communal owners of the land, and that the state cannot capriciously -ring a-out its dissolution nor parcel it out. The resguardo -elongs to the community in perpetuity. ;t cannot -e sold, not even -y the ;ndians themselves. This system helps to maintain the integrity of the community and helps to prevent e9cessive e9ploitation of the natural wealth of the resguardo. %ince 1)?', the government has created some &,& resguardos and 1) reservations, giving land rights over nearly &? million hectares to 1'3 333 ;ndians across the country. $evertheless, the degree to which the communities and the area's natural wealth remain intact depends on how far the people of the resguardos stic< to their traditions and culture. ;n the Amazon, people will fulfil their role as conservators only if they use the forest in the traditional manner. The richest of rainforests The #olom-ian Amazon is particularly rich in speciesH the Amacayacu national par<, which covers 1 million hectares, har-ours more than 233 species of -irds. According to #olom-ian -iologists, the newly created #hiri-iEuete national par< has one of the highest num-ers of uniEue species in the entire Amazon. cologists used to thin< rainforests were so rich in species -ecause they were very ancient: the forest was seen to have attained the clima9 of ecological development which, once reached, remained sta-le for a very long time. $ow most -iologists -elieve that diversity is the result of continual change A with falling and decaying of trees regularly leaving clearings that are then colonised anew. (ost ecologists who have studied the dynamics of forest regeneration agree that the natural forest has a turnover time of -etween ?3 and 11? years. 7ary 0artshorn, of the Tropical %cience #enter in #osta Rica, and other tropical -iologists argue that natural clearings spur on increasing diversity -y providing opportunities for new com-inations of plants and animals. Traditionally, the ;ndians clear patches of forest to ma<e gardens or chagras. To some e9tent, their activities mimic the natural processes of decay and regeneration. $atural clearings appear when a few trees fallH they cover 233 sEuare metres at most. (any trees in the lower storey survive. These trees protect the soil from direct sunshine, while letting enough light through to stimulate the rapid germination of the seeds of pioneer species that lie dormant in the soil. %ome fallen trun<s sprout new shoots and trees eventually grow -ac<. A natural clearing also har-ours many animals which -ring in the seeds of woody species in their e9crement. 6ithin ,3 years, the area of a natural clearing is indistinguisha-le from the surrounding forest. ;n contrast, when ;ndians clear a chagra, they fell all the trees, and the sudden insurgence of direct sunlight <ills young plants and stunts the growth of others. Boung saplings of the understorey and shoots that spring from fallen trun<s die in such intense light. A-out three months after cutting down the trees, the ;ndians fire the The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz fallen wood, <illing the shoots of many pioneer species. /n the other hand, the chagra provides the ideal environment for her-aceous plants: while the seeds of pioneer species predominate when the garden is first cleared, after two years more than )3 per cent of the seeds -elong to her-aceous species. 1ut in ma<ing their chagras, the ;ndians are well aware of the importance of the intact forest around as the regenerator of fertility. They purposely do not -urn or cultivate the -oundaries of their clearingsH furthermore, they grow fruit trees as well as su-sistence crops such as yucca, peppers, to-acco and coca. The fruit attracts -irds and -ats, whose droppings contain a variety of seeds, which speed up the process of regeneration. Although the ;ndians' clearance of chagras mirrors natural changes to a degree, the cycle of clearance and recovery is much longer. According to #hristopher =hl, of the 1razilian Agricultural Research nterprise, and .uan %aldarriaga, of the Araracuara #orporation of #olom-ia, the forest growing -ac< in a chagra may ta<e -etween 1,3 and &33 years to reach maturity. The ;ndians harvest crops such as yucca for two years. Then, as the soil loses its fertility and weeds -egin to encroach on the clearing, they move on, growing crops in a new chagra, -ut returning to collect fruit and hunt game. To -egin with, trees grow very Euic<ly in the a-andoned chagra. ach hectare produces a-out 12 tonnes of -iomass a year for the first couple of years. After ?3 years, the total -iomass, ta<ing into account the natural attrition of trees, is some 123 tonnes per hectare. ;n contrast, clearings made -y -ulldozing away all vegetation show virtually no regeneration and 13 years later may still have no more than & tonnes per hectare of -iomass, mostly made up of her-aceous species. The ;ndians are e9tremely selective in choosing their chagras. They loo< for the right type of soil, on the -asis of what <ind of forest is growing there. 6ith rare e9ceptions, they clear their gardens from primary forest, which must have little understorey and relatively few surface roots. The soil should -e -etween sand and clay: the sand is good for yucca and other tu-erous plants, while clay favours plantains, coca and fruit -ushes. =nli<e the colonists, ;ndians avoid the river -an<s, which although more fertile are su-8ect to flooding. The garden areas form a relatively small part of the territory ;ndians need to ma<e a living. Thomas 6alsch-urger and "atricio von 0ilde-rand, of the "uerto Rastro8o Foundation of #olom-ia, studied how a family of Bucuna people made use of their land on the (iritiparana, a tri-utary of the #aEueta. The family consisted of 1, people, including children. The study showed that Bucuna ;ndians use at least 1? types of ecosystem to furnish them with the -asic necessities. ;n the orchard, covering some & to + hectares around the communal house Fthe malocaG, they cultivated fruit trees such as the chonta duro palm, avocado, papaya, lemon, mango, maraca and others. The near-y forest provided materials, from some 1?' different plant species, wood and vines for -uilding the maloca, wood for canoes,

&, medicinal plants and plants for ritual and shamanistic purposes and for preparing curare. This area also provided game, especially small animals and -irds. Further from home, the family went to the distant forest, encompassing some 13 333 hectares, to hunt and to collect materials not availa-le in the near-y forest. The near-y la<e provided fish during the summer months when the waters were lowH the cananguchales, areas that are permanently or seasonally flooded were important for the canangucho tree F(auritia fle9uosaG, which has a nutritious fruit and attracts game. The chagras of this family, at various stages of regeneration, covered 133 hectares of forest, of which some ,3 hectares were suita-le for growing crops. Rastro8os, a-andoned chagras covered -y secondary forest, encompassed 2' hectares. Flood plains, near and far, provided fish and palm leaves for thatchingH rivers, again near and far, were used for fishing as were the -eaches, which also provided eggs of the charapo turtle. Finally, the Bucuna hunted tapir and deer in areas <nown as salados Fsalt lic<sG. This detailed analysis of how a family uses the rainforest shows how much people have overestimated the carrying capacity of forest -y loo<ing simply at the amount of tim-er or at the capacity of the soil to sustain agriculture. ;n -road terms, the amount of land the Bucuna use for all their hunting, gathering and gardening activities amounts to some 1333 hectares for each man, woman and child. Traditionally, the shaman imposes restrictions on the amount of game that the community can hunt A so that the internal -alances within the forest are not upset. The ;ndians do not view the forest as -eing there for their -enefit or the -enefit of human -eings in general. /n the contrary, em-edded in their view of the world is the notion that each living part of the rainforest must -e given the opportunity to e9ist in order to maintain the integrity of the whole. 6ithout that wholeness, they -elieve, will come disease, disaster and death. The ;ndians view nature and the whole of creation as an intricate networ< of giving and receiving. They -elieve that the forms that they see in the forest are the outward manifestation of an entity which can -e descri-ed as 'thought', and which anthropologists tend to translate as 'essence' or 'energy'. According to the ;ndians, the amount of thought is limited and so it has to -e recycled among the different species, each having its right Euota. The thought emanates chiefly from the %un, or from a place in the east where the %un rises and everything in the world originated. ach group of animals, plants and people needs a certain amount of thought to survive. For this, they have guardians whose 8o- is to see that each group has enough thought and that no one steals more than their share. 6hen people, or indeed other animals, consume plants or animals, they are ta<ing thought from these groups and accumulating it in their own -odies. Among the Tanimuca people of the (iritiparana, as descri-ed -y (artin von 0ilde-rand, the guardian of all hunted animals is represented -y the anteater, the guardian of wild fruit -y the tapir, and the guardian of &, crops -y the anaconda and the cicada. The guardian of the 8ungle itself is the 8aguar, while that of humans is the 8aguarman, or shaman. 6hen people hunt or collect plants to o-tain thought or energy for their group they do so under the direction of their guardian or shaman. (eanwhile, the guardians of the animals or plants hunt people in return -y sending sic<ness and illness or -y causing accidents. ;f anyone consumes too much of a certain plant or animal, their thought -ecomes visi-le to the guardians of the plants and animals, who hunt them down. To avoid such dangers, the ;ndians must -e careful what they eat and how muchH at the same time they must release thought through rituals and fasting. The shaman is an ecologist The shaman is a person who has -een trained to understand the environment A an ecologist -y culture. The shaman esta-lishes contact with the guardians of the plants and animals, either -y entering into altered states of awareness induced -y hallucinogenic drugs or -y fasting. 0e negotiates with them which animals or plants his community can use and offers in e9change coca powder, or the thought of those who have died. /n the -asis of his negotiations, he tells his people where and what they can hunt. The permission to hunt varies with the seasons, with the animals, their reproductive cycles and the use they ma<e of different areas of the forest. very two or three months the community cele-rates communal rituals to collect the e9tra thought that has accumulated in the group so that it can -e returned to the respective guardians. After the ritual the shaman imposes food and se9ual restrictions. 0e also imposes restrictions after other rituals concerning healing, -irth, death, and initiation rites. Ta<en together, these activities lead to effective controls over the use of natural resources. An individual's whole life is -ased on this system of giving and receiving from the forest. %o, too, the local economy, -oth within the community and with neigh-ouring communities, relies heavily on the principle of e9change among human -eings and with the rest of nature. The traditional economy of the ;ndians is almost the e9act opposite of a mar<et economy, in which a person's status increases with his wealth and possessions. ;n the ;ndian community, a person who accumulates is evidently one who lac<s social relations with others and has no one with whom to share. %urpluses, as and when they arise, serve to esta-lish relations informally within the community and more formally with neigh-ouring communities, invited in during rituals and festive occasions, or when there is heavy wor< to -e done. The ;ndians -elieve that -oth the animals and plants are similar to them, maintaining among each other the same sort of system of e9change. They respect the territories and way of life of their fellow creaturesH they <now how each -ehaves and they fear the conseEuences of any a-use. 6hen living within their traditions, the ;ndians

&2 will hunt or e9ploit other -eings only after as<ing for permission under the guidance of the shaman, who is constantly evaluating the state of the environment. Authority within the traditional community resides with the shaman, with the man responsi-le for the smoothA running of the communal house and to a lesser degree with the cantor whose role is to organise the rituals and dances. ;n general these three individuals are -rothers and their authority is inherited. The traditional ways have suffered a severe -attering over the years, -oth as a result of the e9ploitation of the ;ndians -y the ru--er -arons, and under the influence of #hristian missionaries. 1ut the #olom-ian government's changed attitude, and its creation of resguardos, has -een followed -y a remar<a-le resurgence of the traditional way of life. ;n the 1)23s the num-er of malocas among <nown indigenous communities in the #olom-ian Amazon was estimated at five. Today there are a-out ,3 and the num-er is growing fast. 7radually too, traditional leaders are regaining their authority, an authority that is now recognised -y the state itself. ;n a -old and farsighted manner, the #olom-ian government is encouraging the indigenous communities of the Amazon to return to their traditions and cultures and has given them the space and authority to do so. (oreover, it e9pects that the return to a traditional way of life will lead to the protection of the rainforest. At least in the Amazon, #olom-ia appears to have got its values straight A and the word is spreading. 1olivia is now see<ing advice from #olom-ian lawyers on how to create resguardos for the ;ndians of its Amazon region. 6ho else will follow suit@ Further reading The #olom-ian Amazon: policies for the protection of its indigenous peoples and their environment, -y "eter 1unyard, is availa-le from The cological "ress, :awellen Farm, 6ithiel, 1odmin, #ornwall ":+3 2$$, price "ounds sterling 12. Figures: "rotecting #olom-ia's forests Features $ew %cientist, 1& August 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?44 1razil controlled the disease -y spraying the walls inside houses with insecticides to <ill the mosEuitoes that carry the malaria parasite. This strategy was particularly effective against the species of mosEuito that prefer to stay inside -uildings, rather than resting outdoors. %imilar pu-lic health programmes reduced the incidence of malaria in much of *enezuela, 7uyana and %urinam Fespecially in the lowland coastal areasG, as well as in 1razil. =nfortunately, this trend did not last. /ver the past 13 years, the num-ers of cases of malaria throughout the Amazon region, particularly in 1razil, has risen almost e9ponentially. ;n 1)'+, more than &)4 333 cases of malaria were reported in 1razil, almost &'4 333 of them from Amazonia. 1y 1)'', those figures had risen to a-out 2?3 333 and almost 233 333 respectively. To help 1razil to counter the epidemic, the 6orld 1an< has lent the country D)) million Faround "ounds sterling ?3 millionG. The money will partly help to develop the 1razilian agency in charge of controlling malaria, the %uperintendency for "u-lic 0ealth #ampaigns F%=#A(G. ;t will also pay for 1razil to monitor how many people catch malaria, to treat patients, run education pro8ects and improve drainage, including eliminating sites where mosEuitoes can -reed. Finally, it will allow %=#A( to -uy materials and eEuipment for applying pesticides. (alaria is one hardship that those desperate to -enefit from the riches of the Amazon have to tolerate. /ne of the most o-vious reasons for the sudden change in the statistics has -een the huge influ9 of immigrants to the Amazon region, most of whom have no immunity to malaria. The populations of the Amazon states grew 2 per cent a year -etween 1)43 and 1)'3H in most states, the population has dou-led during the 1)'3s. ;n the state of Rondonia, which has attracted more immigrants than other areas, the population has increased -y more than 1&33 per cent -etween 1)23 and 1)'3. "eople have -een attracted to the region for many reasons. The -uilding of the Transamazon highway, -egun in the late 1)?3s, made it easier to enter the Amazon -asin, allowing people to esta-lish farms and settlements. %ettlers in Rondonia founded more than +3 333 new farms within 13 years. "eople have also -een drawn -y the prospects of finding gold and -y 8o-s in mining. (any settlers have no immunity to malaria, pro-a-ly -ecause they come from areas where the disease has remained under control. The association with new settlers colonising the area has -rought the nic<name 'frontier malaria'. The rising incidence of malaria also has a <noc<Aon effect in 1razil outside the Amazon. "eople who go to Amazonia to wor<, and return home, infected with the parasite, to areas where malaria is a-sent, can spar< off local epidemics. ;n 1)'4, %=#A( had to divert resources to silence &) new out-rea<s of malaria outside the Amazon region.

(alaria runs riot on 1razil's wild frontier: The rapid loss of the rainforest is not the only pro-lem facing the Amazon -asin. 1razil is also suffering from a massive epidemic of malaria %0AR/$ >;$7(A$
;$ T0 1)23s and 1)?3s, health officials in 1razil had -rought malaria in their country under control. Transmission of the parasite that causes malaria had virtually stopped in the most densely populated central and coastal regions. Although malaria continued in the Amazon region, few people were e9posed to it there, so it did not seem to pose a large threat.

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

&? %ettlers are vulnera-le to -eing -itten -y malarial mosEuitoes -ecause they live in ma<eshift shelters with no walls to stop the insects entering. (iners, particularly, wear minimal clothing and many live in camps -eside streams where mosEuitoes can -reed, on -oats or even on rafts, if the operation involves dredging for minerals on the river -ed. The push into the Amazon 8ungle has created additional opportunities for mosEuitoes to -reed. Anopheles darlingi, the most important vector of malaria in the region, generally -reeds in pools of stagnant water, as well as at the edges of streams and rivers protected from the current. And after a river has flooded, water remains trapped along the -an<s, providing ideal -reeding grounds for mosEuitoes. $ew roads through the Amazon region create similar ha-itats: construction wor<ers -uilding roads dig channels on either side of the highway to raise it to a suita-le level. 6hen these flood, the mosEuito moves in to lay eggs. #ulverts dug -eneath the road to drain water away -ecome -loc<ed, so flooding again results. ;n areas where farmers have cleared forests to cultivate the land, the soil erodes and washes down into the main rivers. There, it silts up the -an<s, increasing their height and ma<ing it harder for water to drain away after flooding. (ining itself can generate -reeding sites for mosEuitoes. %ites where there has -een open cast mining can fill with water, again encouraging mosEuitoes to -reed. /nce -itten -y a parasiteAcarrying mosEuito, anyone who catches malaria in the Amazon region has few opportunities for treatment. (iners move around a great deal in search of wor<, and many mines are accessi-le only -y air. ven in the most densely populated areas, there are few health centres. The species of parasite which is the most common cause of malaria in the Amazon is "lasmodium falciparum. This is the most severe form of malaria. ;t is often fatal if not treated. ;n the Amazon, it is resistant to most antimalarial drugs, including chloroEuine. To complicate matters further, traditional methods of controlling malaria may not wor< well in the Amazon. The species of mosEuito responsi-le for transmitting most cases of malaria in the Amazon forests loo<s e9actly the same as the species that spreads malaria in the lowland areas of *enezuela and 7uyana. Bet while the latter spent most of its time inside dwellings, where it was easy to spray it with insecticide, the Amazonian variety prefers to -e outside. ;t enters shelters and -uildings, feeds on its victim, and flies out again to lay its eggs. $o one <nows why the mosEuitoes -ehave differently. This species of mosEuito may have originally lived outdoors and fed on animals in the forest, -ut then had to adapt to an indoor life, feeding on humans, when the forest and its animals disappeared. An alternative theory &? is that insecticides have put pressure on A. darlingi to evolve its outdoor ha-it. 0owever, this hypothesis contradicts the o-servation that malaria is worse when people first colonise an area, when they tend to live outdoors. 6hatever the reason, the mosEuitoes' disli<e of remaining inside dwellings ma<es it difficult to control their num-ers with insecticide. The loan from the 6orld 1an< includes a portion for spraying inside houses with !!T, a pesticide -anned in much of the developed world. According to 6orld 1an< $ews F& .une, p +G: 'The use of !!T, the pesticide recommended -y the 6orld 0ealth /rganization for malariaAcontrol operations, will pose no negative environmental impact.' The amounts -eing used, says the newsletter, 'will -e minimal compared with those previously used in agricultural spraying'. The loan includes allocations for training on safe techniEues when spraying and for monitoring the use of the pesticide. Al-ert 0eier, a spo<esman for the nvironmental "rotection Agency in 6ashington !#, says that the =% -anned !!T -ecause of its persistence in the food chain, and -ecause insects -ecame resistant to it. $evertheless, he -elieves that the -enefits of !!T would outweigh its ris<s in a country with a huge out-rea< of malaria. !!T is not the only insecticide that the 1razilian authorities will employ. ven if the others, such as synthetic pyrethroids, have -etter reputations for their impact on the environment, it is still important to evaluate the effectiveness of spraying. Apart from the outdoor ha-it of A. darlingi, another difficulty is that there are no walls to spray in many dwellings. To counter this pro-lem, officials in some places have adopted a policy of ma<ing curtains out of locally produced raffia to resem-le walls, and spraying these. valuation of the impact of this strategy will -e difficult, -ecause scientists <now very little a-out the ha-its of the mosEuitoes of the forests. 1razil's e9perience of malaria in the Amazon raises the issue of how little attention is generally paid to the impact of development pro8ects on health. The 6orld 1an<, which provided loans for many of the pro8ects in the Amazon -asin, has recently set up an environment department. *isvanathan Ra8agopalan, a viceApresident of the 6orld 1an<, says the department's function is to e9amine ways of managing natural resources, improving conservation and the ecological impact of pro8ects. 'These things are receiving much greater attention than in the past,' he says. 1ernhard :iese, also with the 6orld 1an<, points out that in 1razil no one understood the intricate factors contri-uting to the malaria epidemic in the Amazon until it had -een going on for some time. !isorderly development, with many families moving in each day -y any possi-le means of transport, made it difficult to evaluate what was going on. 'Amazonia really is a wild west, a frontier,' he says.

&4 ;t too< time for %=#A( to learn that frontier malaria was a completely new type of malaria, :iese adds. Although the disease concentrates in areas of settlements and gold mines, the epidemic dies down after three or four years, when water around the settlement -ecomes too polluted for the mosEuitoes to lay their eggs in it. The 6orld 1an< maintains that, even though it lays down strict rules a-out the ways in which countries can spend its loans, it cannot stipulate that they ta<e measures to reduce adverse effects on health when carrying out pro8ects. That is up to the country concerned, the -an< -elieves. $ot everyone agrees. 1ruce Rich, a senior attorney with the nvironmental !efense Fund, an independent organisation -ased in 6ashington !#, which focuses on environment and development in the third world, and particularly the role of the 6orld 1an<, holds a different view. 0e says that the 6orld 1an<, which since the early 1)'3s has loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to 1razil for development of the Amazon region, 'has a direct responsi-ility for this disaster'. /f the latest loan, for the control of malaria in the Amazon, Rich says: 'For a country li<e 1razil, that's a very e9pensive way of standing still. 'Further reading '0uman migration and the spread of malaria in 1razil', A. #ruz (arEues, "arasitology Today, 1)'4, vol +, p 1??. Report on a Technical #onsultation on Research in %upport of (alaria #ontrol in the Amazon 1asin, availa-le on reEuest from the Tropical !isease Research "rogramme of the 6orld 0ealth /rganization, 1&11 7eneva &4, %witzerland. Features $ew %cientist, 34 .uly 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14&,

1esides the handAouts of rainforest ice cream, the assem-led environmentalists, anthropologists and 8ournalists were offered pots of Mam-ian honey culled -y villagers from -ar< hives, and 1razilAnut hair conditioner from the Amazon. 7reenAminded wood carvers displayed samples of wood imported from a "eruvian 'sustaina-le forestry' pro8ect. The wor<ing thesis of the conference was that you don't have to destroy rainforests to ma<e money out of them. Bou can ma<e as much, and perhaps more, without upsetting the ecology, -y harvesting the forests' natural products. And you can do this in cooperation with the inha-itants of the forests, whose unparalleled <nowledge of the riches of the forests can lead hardy 6esterners to a -iological l !orado. To ensure that conservation can meet capitalism on eEual terms, campaigners are calling for the creation of 'e9tractive reserves', forest land set aside to -e e9ploited without destroying the forest. 'The concept of the e9tractive reserve seems to us to -e the <ey to protecting those areas of the rainforest which, for understanda-le social and economic reasons, cannot -e set aside as totally protected areas,' pronounced .onathan "orritt, outgoing director of Friends of the arth. The idea, he said, is '-oth practical and visionary'. 1ut will it wor<@ And what do the people whose reserves are -eing eyed -y the new ecoAentrepreneurs thin< a-out it@ The iceAcream merchants, mar<eting consultants flush from a year spent selling environmentally friendly washing powder and catalytically converted cars at premium prices, are e9cited. #am-ridge (ar<et Research has esta-lished that 4? per cent of 'housewives' would pay e9tra for ice cream containing rainforest fruits. "aul 1eresford, a former -uyer for .. %ains-ury, 1ritain's largest food retailer, and mar<eting manager for $estle, is now 'creator' of the rainforest ice cream. 0e -elieves it is worth -raving the pro-lems of esta-lishing a supply infrastructure from the forest to the fastAfood counters, and of 8uggling currency fluctuations in any nascent cupuacu futures mar<et, provided, he said, he had 'the support of you in the industry'. 0e meant the environment industry, and he was angling for an endorsement of his products from >ew 7ardens. 0igh priest of the rainforest harvest is .ason #lay. 0e runs a rainforest mar<eting pro8ect for #ultural %urvival, a group that campaigns for the rights of American indigenous peoples. #lay is -ehind another ice cream, Rainforest #runch, a confection flavoured with handA pic<ed 1razil and cashew nuts from the Amazon that is already on sale in the =%. And he is in charge of the wellApu-licised forays into the Amazon forests -y the 1ody %hop, a fashiona-le international chain of cosmetics stores run -y environmental enthusiast Anita Roddic<. 'For the forests,' #lay says, 'it is a Euestion of use it or lose it. The value of the rainforest will have to -e tested in the mar<etplace. 1ut the point is to change the mar<et, not the forest.' $one of his suggested products

1razil, where the ice cream comes from: The way to save the rainforest is to ignore the trees and sell the other fruits on offer. 6hat effect will a conversion to capitalism have on the forest dwellers@ FR ! " AR#
;T ;% ! :;#;/=%, -ut can it save the Amazon rainforest@ Rainforest dairy iceAcream contains cupuaca Fpronounce it #ooApooAaAsooG and -iri-a, two fruits of the Amazon. Although not yet on sale from the -ac< of an iceAcream van, it went down well at a recent conference on 'The Rainforest 0arvest' in :ondon. The rediscovery -y 6estern entrepreneurs and -otanical adventurers of these and other fruits, nuts and resins in the forests has led to a fever of e9citement among some environmentalists that they could provide an economic lifeline for the forests, an alternative to their destruction -y chainsaws and fire-rands. #ould the same mar<et forces that seem hellA-ent on destroying the rainforests -e harnessed to save them@ '#ometh the hour, cometh the green consumer' seems to -e the message. The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

&' has yet reached the 1ody %hop counters, -ut #lay has tested &23 in the past year and found +3 with potential for incorporating into the ru-s, -alms and smells in which Roddic<'s growing empire specialises. #ultural %urvival imposes a 2 per cent 'environmental ta9' on its commercial clients, which it invests in its activities round the world on -ehalf of traditional societies. ;n addition, #lay advises Roddic< on how to put her considera-le profits to good use -y aiding selfA help pro8ects organised -y the forest people themselves. Rum-les of outrage when Roddic< copied the roc< star %ting -y giving an ;ndian chief a private plane may have reformed her style. (oney today is going to a university research centre run -y the =nion of ;ndian $ations in 1razil and to a village factory that shells nuts and processes their oil. %uch pro8ects may cut out rapacious middlemen. #urrently, says #lay, '1razil nut collectors receive & to + per cent of the $ew Bor< wholesale price of their nuts'. And according to the green ca-inetAma<er, #hris #o9, commercial traders give "eruvian natives D? for mahogany trees that fetch up to "ounds sterling ,333 in 1ritain. #an the lands and their inha-itants really -e saved -y reducing the rainforest to an e9otic -azaar to service the yearnings of 6estern consumers for nutty snac<s and foot lotions@ Andrew 7rey, an anthropologist at the =niversity of #am-ridge and former director of the ;nternational 6or< 7roup on ;ndigenous Affairs, thin<s it unli<ely. '6e are spending our time tal<ing a-out what we can get from the people of the rainforest, not what they can get from us. 6e are preserving the -iodiversity of the mar<et, not the rainforest.' 6here #lay and the 1ody %hop see partnership, 7rey sees a new round of economic imperialism. The -est of intentions have a ha-it of going wrong, he warns. The idea of a rainforest harvest has an unfortunate ancestry. 'The ru--er -oom in the Amazon early this century was at the time painted as a sustaina-le use of a forest resource,' he says. 1ut the ru--er -arons in remote corners of #olom-ia and elsewhere, -ecame engaged in an illAdisguised form of genocide. '7enocide won't happen now,' he says. '1ut there are ris<s of ethnocide from the mar<et economy. 6e ris< enticing native people into a mar<et over which they have no control.' 1oth 7rey, who has studied the spiritual underpinnings of ;ndian societies in "eru, and (artin von 0ilde-rand, who has done similar wor< in #olom-ia, -elieve that mar<et economics could -e very dangerous for ;ndian cultures. ';n their societies economics ta<e place in a spiritual environment. ;f we ta<e it out of that spiritual control, we impose a very different set of priorities. 6e have to decide whether we are really interested in ;ndians or profits,' says 7rey. The list of products already ta<en from the rainforests appears endless. /riana seed used -y some Amazon tri-es as a -ody ma<eAup and to ward off flies is now <nown to readers of the small print of food la-els as 1?3-, an orange food colouring used in -utter among other things. 1alata late9 turns up in chewing gum and &' to coat golf -alls. $umerous foods, medicines and industrial products are derived from the rainforests A hardly surprising as perhaps half of the world's species of plants and animals have their homes there. #learly, there is nothing new a-out 6esterners raiding the rainforests to feed their mar<ets. 1ut it has -een a raid rather than trade. /nce -otanists have ta<en their samples home and repotted them or tuc<ed away the seeds in gene -an<s, the forests are often no longer needed. ither, li<e ru--er or palms, production is transferred to plantations, or the reEuired chemical is refined and synthesised in 6estern la-oratories. #ertainly neither Third 6orld governments nor forest people receive any reward from the su-seEuent e9ploitation. The classic e9ample is the rosy periwin<le, a native plant of (adagascar. Ta<en from the forest -y the American company li :illy, it has -een turned into a treatment for 0odg<in's disease, worth "ounds sterling ?3 million a year. A study for the 6orld 6ide Fund for $ature concluded that 'if (adagascar had received a significant part of this income, it would have -een one of the country's largest Fif not the largestG single source of income'. .ust another -usiness deal@ The "rince of 6ales is -lunter: '(any Third 6orld countries are apprehensive that they will -e ripped off. . . The rainforests must not 8ust -e seen as another -usiness opportunity.' At the Rainforest 0arvest conference, he called for a system of royalty payments to the forested nations for the use of their genetic resources. 1ut -enefits must go to local people, he said, not 8ust to national governments. Two things may soften the impact of the latest drive to ma<e money from the forests. First, many of the new initiatives are -ased on detailed study and dialogue with the rainforest peoples. The wor< is done -y ethno-otanists, who realise that an understanding of native culture is essential to understanding the wealth of the forests. 1rian 1ooth, of the $ew Bor< 1otanic 7arden, who wor<s among the #haca-o ;ndians of 1olivia, has found that they use more than threeAEuarters of the vast range of tree species in their forests as poisons, medicines, food or in construction. '6e need to protect these people and decipher their <nowledge,' he says. 1ut ethno-otanists, too, may have to decide whether their first loyalty is to 6estern sponsors or to the people who invite them into their villages and share their secrets. 6hen native <nowledge is deciphered and added to the data-an<s of multinationals, who will save the people then@ A second cause for optimism lies in the fact that many entrepreneurs now feel that a green image for their products commands a premium in the mar<etplace. /ptimists -elieve that the com-ination of these two facts can lead to the development in the 6est of mar<ets for products that the local people are already harvesting, and increasingly processing as well. And that could -e a

&) mar<et in which, with 6estern environmentalists ever ready to leap to their defence, the producers retain control. The Rainforest 0arvest conference -rought to :ondon several old hands at the -usiness of e9tracting a sustaina-le profit from the forests. 0ives made from -ar< and scattered through the remote forests of northwest Mam-ia yield honey and wa9 that provide a source of cash for thousands of families. The -ee<eepers, said 1o(alichi from $orth 6estern 1ee "roducts during a sales pitch aimed at opening up uropean mar<ets, are organising to defend their forests against foresters and 'developers'. The outsiders threaten the survival of the wild -ees on which they depend. Their case may -e heard more loudly in :usa<a if they can show that forest -ee products earn foreign e9change, the life -lood of most Third 6orld governments. !el-ert Rice, an American missionary who has lived with the ;<alahan people of northern :uzon in the "hilippines for more than +3 years, told the story of their -attle with the authorities to win -ac< control of their land in a 'communal forest stewardship agreement'. %ince then, they have pioneered new techniEues for increasing their harvest of sweet potatoes -y planting trees alongside. This has freed land for replanting with trees. Rice descri-ed how they have harvested wild fruits to ma<e 8ams and 8ellies for the 'gourmet mar<et'. '6e ma<e all our own eEuipment and process the products as much as possi-le -efore sale,' said Rice. The more they do themselves, the -etter the community can persuade its universityAeducated children to return home to run their -usinesses. $o one would pretend that the ;<alahan are not having an important effect on their local ecology. 1ut in reality a human footprint is present everywhere in the rainforests. ven harvesting -razil nuts can have a devastating effect on the -irds and animals that would otherwise have eaten them. And where humans hunt, the vulture goes hungry and patterns of seed dispersal, normally sustained -y fruitAeating animals, go haywire. 'There is no such thing as a virgin forest,' argues >ent Redford of the #entre for :atin American %tudies in Florida. '; challenge you to find a 133 sEuare <ilometre area of the Amazon rainforest that is not altered -y humans.' The <ey to successful 'sustaina-le' e9ploitation of the forests and their products is secure land tenure for the forest people themselves. 6hen the "hilippine government declared the land of the ;<alahan a forest reserve, the people had no interest in preserving the forest and -egan to destroy it. 6hen it was returned to them they protected it. From 1orneo to 1razil, land rights are at the heart of the fight to preserve the rainforests and it is here that the idea of e9tractive reserves offers its -est claim to -eing a genuine panacea for the pro-lems of the rainforests. The first e9tractive reserves The idea of e9tractive reserves grew out of the struggle of tenant ru--er tappers in Acre, the remote westernmost state of the 1razilian Amazon. They wanted to hang onto their livelihoods in the midA1)'3s when their landlords, whose legal rights to the land were freEuently tenuous, -egan to sell out to speculators and cattle ranchers as one of the great Amazon highways entered the state. #hico (endes, shot dead -y the sons of a local landowner 1' months ago, was at the centre of the movement, which had e9cited the interest of 6estern environmentalists. The struggle was crowned in .anuary this year when the government granted a series of e9tractive reserves to the local ru--er tappers and 1razil nut collectors. Few of the e9isting landlords could su-stantiate their legal rights to their estates and forfeited them. The reserves now cover some , million hectares. The $ational #ouncil of Ru--er Tappers, which (endes headed, has transformed an apparently archaic form of land holding, the traditional Amazonian ru--er estate, into 'a new form of occupation of land in the Amazon', says %teve %chwartzman, an anthropologist from the nvironmental !efense Fund in 6ashington. 1ut even -efore the reserves are fully operational, they are the su-8ect of intense de-ate. The central Euestion is this: Are the e9tractive reserves of Acre a local solution to a particular social pro-lem in that state, or do they represent a model for the sustaina-le e9ploitation of the Amazon rainforest@ Are e9tractive reserves the right way forward for ;ndians and new migrants, as well as the second and thirdAgeneration migrants that ma<e up the population of ru--er tappers@ The =nion of ;ndian $ations in 1razil has formed a strong alliance with the ru--er tappers in support of creating more reserves. 1ut conventional development economists are sceptical. Tony Anderson, who wor<s for the influential Ford Foundation in Rio de .aneiro, argues that if e9tractive reserves are to -e economically via-le, much of the forest will have to -e transformed or even removed A which appears to destroy the happy notions -ehind their adoption -y environmentalists such as "orritt. Ru--er tapping, says Anderson, is economically via-le in the Amazon only -ecause of large price su-sidies. ven so, most of the ru--er tappers live in poverty. 'Their access to mar<ets is poor and their social services nonAe9istent,' he says. The reserves are little more than a means of preserving the way of life of a group of people which, than<s to the assassination of (endes, has -ecome <nown round the world. To survive on a reserve, a typical family needs +33 to 233 hectares of land, far more than the allocations made in the disastrous colonisation programmes for farmers elsewhere in the Amazon. /n that -asis, says Anderson, there is simply not enough land in the Amazon to go round. According to .ohn 1rowder, from the *irginia "olytechnic ;nstitute and a mem-er of the :atin American %tudies Association, the real Euestion is what should -e done with the million or so families of migrant farmers strung out across the Amazon. ';f the reserves are to survive, they must incorporate other forms of land use.' /nly in that way will they attract outside investment. Anderson suggests the model provided -y

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

+3 .apanese immigrants, impro-a-ly holed up in the forest near 1elem. 1an< loans and hired la-our help them to run prosperous farms amid the forests on &' hectares per family. 1ut in this notion, many people feel, lies the unaccepta-le face of capitalism, desperate for a way to e9ploit the Amazon region and muscling in on a scheme devised to allow local people in the forest to control their own lives. For most of those involved in the de-ate, what the Amazon and other rainforests need is people power, not economic models. %pea<ing for the ru--er tappers, Antonio (acedo, coordinator of the $ational #ouncil of Ru--er Tappers in 1razil, insists that e9tractive reserves should not -e seen as the -asis of a capitalist model for the Amazon. '6e cannot accept the -eginning of a new race -y international capital to identify new rainforest products. 6e are capa-le of managing our own riches with our own pro8ects,' he says. For (acedo an early priority for the ru--er tappers is to -egin manufacturing small ru--er products themselves. The first 8o- would -e to supply local mar<ets rather than international traders. $onetheless, we may all soon -e a-le to -uy condoms from the rainforest. #lay offers the mar<eting slogan: '"rotect yourselfH protect the rainforests.' The ru--er tappers may find their own way, -ut what a-out the ;ndians of the Amazon and other tri-al peoples in other rainforests. !o they face ethnocide, with or without the aid of green capital@ Again, the issue may come down to land rights. The government of #olom-ia has -een systematically handing -ac< its corner of the Amazon rainforest to the native ;ndians. As a result, says (artin von 0ilde-rand, an anthropologist who wor<ed in the region for &3 years -efore -ecoming the government's head of ;ndian affairs, there has -een a renaissance of ;ndian ritual and culture: '6e have given them an alternative path of development to integration. They can advance and retain their culture. 1eing a-le to do this depends on them having control of their own areas.' They will trade. 'The ;ndians need the outside world A for metal tools, -atteries, flashlights and medicines to com-at 6estern diseases,' says von 0ilde-rand. 1ut they will trade on their own terms, according to their own needs. They have already had one recent narrow escape. #oca traders arrived in the area in the early 1)'3s to -uy leaves to supply the $orth American cocaine mar<et. #oca is a highly sustaina-le crop with a highly sustaina-le mar<et and in some ways, perhaps, the ideal forest product. The traders soon left again, unhappy with the Euality of the local coca leaves, -ut -efore then, many of the young men that von 0ilde-rand was staying with -ecame rich enough to -uy tape recorders and other 6estern goods. ;t could have destroyed the tri-e, -ut the culture was strong and the young men spent most of their time using their tape recorders to record and learn traditional songs from the elders. $ow they are using them to map their lands and document their way of life. 'The culture is changing, -ut developing,' says von 0ilde-rand. 'They need space and time to adapt to the modern world in their own way and on their own terms.' ;f rainforest ice cream and -razil nut -ody ru- can help to -uy that space and time, then the rainforest -azaar may yet, despite the fore-odings, serve their purpose as well as ours. 1ut, as 7rey warns, 'the voice of the indigenous people has to come first'. Further reading '7uardians of the Amazon', $ew %cientist, 1? !ecem-er 1)'). 'Fruits of the rainforest', $ew %cientist, 1+ .anuary 1))3. Review $ew %cientist, 3, August 1))3, *ol.1&4 $o.14&'

Amazonia's history of e9ploitation %T "0 $ $=7 $T


9plorers of the Amazon -y Anthony %mith, *i<ing, pp +,,, "ounds sterling 12.)) A$T0/$B %(;T0 presents an engaging account of four hundred years of Amazonian history as he recounts the e9ploits of some of the scientists and e9plorers whose careers were mar<ed Fand, in some cases, e9haustedG -y their time in the Amazon. The two e9ceptions Ffirst and last chaptersG are "edro #a-ral, whose 'discovery' of 1razil had little to do with Amazonia, -ut whose story sets the scene for "ortugal's haphazard appropriation of Amazonia, and .ulio Arana, the most infamous of the ru--er -arons. The -oo< is a welcome addition to the literature -ut the a-sence of a chapter on 1ates and 6allace is surprising. ;nstead, %mith uses %pruce to represent the archetypal 1)thAcentury 1ritish naturalist, usefully focusing on his involvement with #lements (ar<ham and >ew 7ardens. ngrossing though the -oo< is, %mith pursues no large theme, rather each chapter is a more or less selfA contained story, interesting in its own right. 6hile this structure has the advantage of accessi-ility, it tends to e9alt the efforts of uropean conEuerors let loose in green hell and presents Amazonia as a vast natural resource waiting for the -igAmanagement solution. The a-sence of a -ig theme -ecomes a real shortcoming in the distressingly -rief postscript in which %mith offers a few o-servations on recent developments in Amazonia. 6hen he claims that: 'The -asin is still frontier territory', he is oversimplifying to a degree unworthy of the material that he has provided in the preceding pages. For e9ample, his treatment of 0enry Ford, !aniel :udwig and TransamazonArelated developments are hardly worthy of inclusion and do not ac<nowledge the important revisions -y such historians as !ean, 6einstein and dos %antos. ;n discussing recent hydroelectric schemes in the region, %mith ma<es a small howler when he claims that 'no one has yet suggested damming the river itself'. This is precisely what was suggested -y the 0udson ;nstitute study carried out in the late 1)?3s.

+3

+1 These Eui--les aside, 9plorers of the Amazon is a s<ilfully assem-led historical overview of the region. %mith draws on a wide variety of sources to provide a synthesis that will -e of interest to area specialists as well as general readers. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, &1 April 1))3, *ol.1&? $o.141+ from which forest people, including ;ndians, ru--er tappers and nut gatherers, can harvest their traditional crops without damaging the forest. Three wee<s -efore he left government, %arney signed three decrees that created reserves covering 1.? million hectares. '%o now we have the decrees A -ut we don't have the government. 6e have to e9plain to a new president how it was that %arney agreed to the setting up of these areas,' said >rena<. >rena< called for a halt to large development pro8ects so that the people of Amazonia could have a -reathing space to wor< things out. And he called for international help in providing ;ndian peoples with the means to study their own territory and conduct a census of the tri-es, so that they can decide on the -est strategy for the forest and its people. 'The shamans have made us responsi-le for protecting these places,' he said. '1ut we understand this responsi-ility concerns everyone.' This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 1+ April 1))1, *ol.1+3 $o.14?, "age12

#olom-ia calls on rich to fund forest protection %T "0A$; "A;$


T0 1=R! $ of protecting tropical rainforests should -e shared -y the rich industrial countries of the world, "resident *irgilio 1arco of #olom-ia said at the Royal 1otanic 7ardens last wee<. 7iving the second >ew Rainforest :ecture, 1arco said the industrial countries had an ecological de-t to pay. 'The world community and the various multilateral and international organisations are confronted with one of the greatest challenges in history A to halt ecological destruction and at the same time defeat poverty and underdevelopment.' 1arco has already ta<en radical steps to conserve the rainforest in his own country. 0is government has handed almost &3 million hectares of Amazonian forest over to the local ;ndians, giving the ;ndians the right A and the means A to live according to their traditions and, in doing so, to protect the rainforest Fsee '7uardians of the Amazon', $ew %cientist, 1? !ecem-er 1)')G. 1ut there is a considera-le price to pay for protecting the forest, said 1arco. 'All this signifies for us an immense effort. ;t means that we have to rein in the e9pansion of our economic frontier, to halt migration to the Amazon, to place restraints on the legal e9port of tim-er and tropical species. 6ithout international involvement, individual efforts such as #olom-ia's will -e frustrated,' he said. 0e -ac<ed the idea of an international rainforest convention, proposed -y the "rince of 6ales earlier this year FThis 6ee<, 14 Fe-ruaryG, saying that this should include some mechanism for compensating those countries that suffer financial loss through controlling the destruction of their forests. ;nternational help is not simply a Euestion of the rich countries helping the poorer ones. $eigh-ouring countries that share the Amazon rainforest must cooperate in its preservation, said 1arco. 1razil, however, shows little sign of following #olom-ia's e9ample. Ailton >rena<, leader of the Forest "eople's Alliance, pointed out that his people are trying to protect an area every -it as important as that which 1arco has handed -ac< to the #olom-ian ;ndians. '1ut we face a fundamental difference. 6e are trying to do this against the will of the 1razilian government,' he said, 'and we have -een paying with our lives.' The 1razilian ;ndians spent five years negotiating with former "resident .ose %arney for areas of Amazonia to -e set aside as e9tractive reserves. These would -e areas The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

Rainforests saved -y satellite


%atellite photographs are helping 1razil in its crac<down on illegal -urning of the Amazon rainforest. "ictures ta<en daily -y the American satellite $/AA ) show e9actly where the fires are, allowing ;-ama, the state environment agency, to identify the perpetrators and punish them with heavy fines. ;n the past year, ;-ama has reduced the num-er of -urnings -y &2 per cent. %ome 1' 333 sEuare <ilometres of virgin forest were destroyed in the Amazon area last year, compared to &1 333 in 1)'), says ;-ama. %atellite detection forms a large part of '/peration Amazonia', which -egan last April. The images from the satellite can pinpoint fires that involve only half a dozen trees. 6ith the help of helicopters from the 1razilian Air Force and the federal police, ;-ama moves in to stop the -urning -efore too much damage is done. :ast year, ;-ama levied +34+ fines in the Amazon area. /ne rancher in the state of Rondonia had to pay a record D4433 after he was caught destroying 1'33 hectares of forest. /ne of the first -eneficiaries of the reduction in the num-er of -urnings has -een the chestnut industry, which reported a record year in 1))3. "reviously, smo<e from the -urnings had driven out the insect responsi-le for pollinating chestnut trees. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 1& %eptem-er 1))&, *ol.1+2 $o.1'+' "age '

Amazonian e9ploits

+& 1razil's environment secretary Flavio "erri said last wee< that his government intends to open up the Amazon region to economic e9ploitation in a 'sustaina-le, nonAdestructive way'. %pea<ing in Rio de .aneiro, he said 'the Amazon is there to -e e9ploited. ;t cannot -e mummified.' #attleAraising, mining and agriculture would all -e considered. "erri said a government survey would 'determine which areas are suita-le for which type of activity without causing serious environmental damage'. 1ut environmentalists have criticised the survey. "hilip Fearnside of the $ational ;nstitute of Amazonian %tudies, said most Amazonian states did not have enough researchers to do the wor<. Also, some state governments want development at all costs and may declare whole regions open for e9ploitation. Former environmental minister, .ose :utzen-erger, argues that the government should first try to regenerate the soil of the ,33 333 sEuare <ilometres of the Amazon -asin that have already -een deforested. :utzen-erger says much of the pro-lem has -een caused -y peasant farmers who emigrated to the region without <nowing that the soils were unsuita-le for agriculture. After a few years, the land -ecomes useless and the farmers are forced to move and chop down more trees. Features $ew %cientist, 3) (ay 1))&, *ol.1+, $o.1'&3 "age +? countries, and that they are afforda-le'. 0e sees technologies that minimise waste as the single most important hope for conserving the environment. The phrase used to descri-e this process is 'technology transfer'. ;t permeates the mountains of paperwor< already produced for the summit. Bet its meaning remains illAdefined, and it rests on dangerous premises. ;t feeds the 6estern image of itself as the fount of technological wisdom: one fear of Third 6orld governments is that 6estern environmental concerns will -e used as a weapon to increase control over the economies of poor nations -y forcing greater dependence on 6estern technologies. And it reinforces the desire of many aggrieved governments of those poor nations to e9tract cash and other favours from the rich. Almost every government delegate at the arth %ummit will ma<e ritual calls for increased technology transfer as a <ey element in 'turning words into action' to save the planet. 1ritish negotiators report that Third 6orld nations regard access to 6estern environmentallyA friendly technologies 'as of almost eEual importance to financial resources'. The ironic result, as one leading Third 6orld green, Anil Agarwal of ;ndia's #entre for %cience and the nvironment points out, is that 'those 6estern countries who have -een the most immoral in environmental terms are now preaching to those who have -een most frugal and sparing'. nvironmentalists in $ew Bor<, their city's neon lights visi-le from space, presume to devise energyA saving strategies for Africa when $ew Bor< uses more electricity than the entire 'dar< continent' from the %ahara to the :impopo. The average American contri-utes twenty times more to the greenhouse effect than the average ;ndian. :ogically, Americans ought to see< out ;ndia's green ways of living, not vice versa. 1ut life is not so simple, largely -ecause of the desire of Third 6orld nations to ta<e the cheap and dirty road to industrialisation that the 6est followed decades -efore. For some, such as Tol-a, cur-ing this process is the world's most pressing environmental challenge. The contrast -etween environmental policies in the 6est and the Third 6orld is star<. nergy efficiency has improved -y more than &3 per cent in the 6est in the past two decades. !espite continued economic growth, car-on dio9ide emissions in the =% were less in the late 1)'3s than in the late 1)43s. And -etter wasteAwater treatment plant and flueAgas scru--ers have -rought spectacular reductions in river pollution and acid rain in the 6est. (eanwhile, the -lac< smo<e pouring from the factory chimneys of ;ndia and #hina, the smogs of (e9ico #ity, the destruction of tropical rainforest from the Amazon to 1orneo, the African irrigation pro8ects that dry out more fields than they water A all testify to the power of outdated 6estern technologies to wrea< havoc in the %outh. The inefficiencies of the $igerian oil industry are

The hidden cost of technology transfer: The developing world demands economic growth. 1ut that is no e9cuse for rich industrial nations to transfer technology destined to -ring social chaos and environmental ruin FR ! " AR#
Technology got the planet into this mess A -ut technology can also get us out of it. %o the =$'s mammoth arth %ummit, to -e held in Rio de .aneiro this .une, will -e told -y most delegates from the poor %outh as well as those from the rich $orth. 1ut is it true@ And, if it is, how can the world ensure that the fourAfifths of the planet's population living in poor countries gain access to the new 'green' technologies now -eing created in the la-oratories of the 6est@ Technologists from the industrialised countries -elieve that they are -eginning to grapple with glo-al environmental pro-lems, cutting pollution and using natural resources more efficiently. 1ut they fear that progress is threatened -y the desire of poor nations to -etter their lot. (ostafa Tol-a, the gyptian head of the =$ nvironment "rogramme, said at a technology transfer conference at the Royal ;nstitute of ;nternational Affairs in :ondon last year: ';f these countries develop using the o-solete, inefficient production techniEues that the rich countries used to generate their wealth, then our destruction is assured.' The challenge at the arth %ummit, he says, is 'to ensure that the clean technologies now -eing developed are made availa-le to the poor +&

++ so great that it flares off enough natural gas from its oil fields to serve the entire energy needs of most of Africa. The grossness of this pollution and waste means that there is huge potential for cheap improvements, however. ToufiE %iddiEi, energy specialist at the astA 6est #entre in 0awaii, says: ' very D13 invested in energyAgenerating efficiency in #hina could reduce car-on dio9ide emissions -y one tonne.' 1ut to point out the potential of cleaner industrial development in the Third 6orld is not the same as showing that what is needed is more 6estern technology. %till less that, as many Third 6orld governments complain, the 6est is operating a cartel to <eep the technology out of their hands. For, in general, advanced technology is a long way down the list of what is reEuired. Far from -eing loc<ed up -ehind e9pensive patent -arriers in the la-oratories of the 6est, the devices -est placed to -ring the most spectacular gains, especially in energy efficiency and reducing pollution, are decidedly low technology, and often pay for themselves within a year or two. For instance, proper maintenance and pipe lagging on #hina's ,33 333 small industrial -oilers, which consume +33 million tonnes of coal each year, could reduce fuel consumption and pollution -y +3 per cent, -ringing their efficiency close to 6estern levels, says %iddiEi. TRA$%F R T0 I" RT;% for the A%# $! &1 conference in *ienna last !ecem-er, at which scientists discussed the agenda for the arth %ummit, noted 'the failure of developing countries fully to use technological information in the pu-lic domain A Ffor e9ampleG patents that have e9pired'. And it concluded that 'the a-ility to assimilate technology, not -arriers to transfer, is the primary impediment. Rela9ation of intellectual property and licensing restrictions will not necessarily lead to greater technology transfer.' And when nonAgovernment groups met in "aris last !ecem-er to prepare their own 'action plan' for the arth %ummit, they concluded: 'The view that technology can -e transferred from $orth to %outh has -een proved wrong. A technology which involves mere transfer of machines and chemicals will last as long as the creators of the material are around.' 6hat is needed, they argued, 'is the training of people in s<ills and technologies to allow people to creatively adapt, innovate and invent new technologies appropriate to their needs and societies'. (A>;$7 (/R /F $AT=RA: R %/=R# % (any technologists in the %outh re8ect their governments' desire for the latest 6estern technology. For instance, %. *aradara8an, a leading ;ndian industrialist and former directorAgeneral of the country's #ouncil of %cientific and ;ndustrial Research, says: '6e in ;ndia need things that we can repair, not -lac< -o9es that have to -e replaced. 6e need to install technology slowly, in stages. And there should -e some lin< -etween the introduced technology and the local community. The local area should provide some resource, or the process should use some local <nowledge.' (any of these issues have emerged sharply in the most politically charged area of de-ate a-out technology transfer, that of -iotechnology. ;t has come to the fore during discussions a-out a glo-al treaty for preserving -iological diversity. The treaty is intended to -e signed -y world leaders at the arth %ummit. (ost of the planet's surviving -iodiversity A whether the measure is a simple count of wild species, wild strains of important food crops, or functioning ecosystems A is in the tropics. 1ut countries such as 1razil, ;ndonesia and ;ndia resist the claim, made -y 6estern governments and environmentalists ali<e, that -iodiversity is a glo-al heritage. As the eight %outh American signatories of the Amazon "act, a loose accord among them, asserted in Fe-ruary, '-iological resources are without dou-t the natural resources of the countries which e9ercise sovereignty over them'. They re8ect, too, the idea that their rainforests, home to perhaps half the world's species, should -e preserved for the -enefit of the rest of the planet A not least -ecause they -elieve that food and pharmaceuticals companies -ased in the rich northern countries stand to ma<e most money from this 'glo-al resource'. According to Agarwal: 'The highAsounding plea of the common

;n any case, the record for the successful introduction of advanced technologies in the Third 6orld is very poor, especially in Africa. .ohn #oleman, ;#;'s environmental affairs manager, says that 'technology transfer is a social not an industrial pro-lemH it is not a-out handing over -lueprints, it is a-out ensuring that Fthe technologiesG will wor<'. A report -y management consultants Touche Ross for 1ritain's arth %ummit negotiators dismissed the purported -arrier to Third 6orld countries gaining access to technologies for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. '!eveloping countries generally have access to the reEuired technologies. This is more a perceived than a real -arrier.' The really -eneficial technologies were not pieces of eEuipment, -ut the 'soft' technologies A training in operation and maintenance methods, in particular A which have -een 'historically neglected'. Touche Ross investigated the role of technology transfer in -oth com-ating the greenhouse effect and conserving -iological diversity. ;n each case it re8ected the idea that patents and the growing panoply of intellectual property rights were a significant -arrier to technology transfer. ';ntellectual property rights in fact facilitate the flow of scientific <nowledge, -y ma<ing information a-out innovations pu-licly availa-le,' said the company. The real -arriers to successful technology transfer from the 6est to the Third 6orld are much harder for governments to deal with. A study of technology policies The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

+, heritage of human<ind is a rhetorical device to disguise continued e9ploitation.' The <ey to the wealth loc<ed up in the rainforests, they -elieve, is -iotechnology, in particular the manipulation of genes that will allow the genetic attri-utes of wild plants found in the rainforests or grasslands of the tropics to -e given to cultivated plants. Among food crops, the genes might code for resistance to particular pests or frosts, reduce growing times or increase yields. A recent report on 7uyana's forests for the #ommonwealth %ecretariat said that -rea<throughs in -iotechnology had 'greatly enhanced the potential economic value of 7uyana's rich genetic estate'. 1ut the fear in the tropics is that within a few decades, -iotechnologists will ransac< their countries for genetic resources that they will ta<e home and hoard in 6estern gene -an<s. A typical e9ample of how Third 6orld governments feel e9ploited arose when the ;nternational ;nstitute of Tropical Agriculture found under cultivation in northern $igeria a strain of cowpea that was unusually resistant to weevils, which often eat a large part of the cowpea harvest. The institute employed researchers from the =niversity of !urham in the north of ngland to isolate the source of this resistance, which turned out to -e a molecule called trypsin inhi-itor that interferes with the meta-olism of the weevil. Then a venture capital company at the university found and too< out a patent on the gene that codes for the molecule, and -egan licensing seed companies to incorporate it in a num-er of different crops. %ales of genetically engineered weevilAresistant crops may still -e a decade away. 1ut $igeria has little hope of ever charging a royalty for the s<ills of its farmers, stretching perhaps over hundreds of years, in selectively -reeding the weevilAresistant cowpea. This was underlined when the 1ritish researchers, after doing their research on $igerian plants, decided to o-tain the gene from a #alifornian variety of cowpea. 7enetic resources are not, as consultants Touche Ross told the 1ritish government, a '-iological oil stri<e'. ;f Third 6orld countries are to ma<e money from them, they must develop the technologies to e9ploit them. The prospects for doing this may appear small. Touche Ross argued that this is not -ecause the secrets are loc<ed up: 'There are no ma8or constraints to the transfer of the science which underpins -iotechnology.' Rather, it is -ecause many countries lac< the trained scientists and the institutional -ac<up to -enefit from their genetic resources. 1ut they do possess one priceless, -ut usually undervalued, asset: local <nowledge. ;n the Amazon rainforest, for instance, only the local ;ndian communities <now in detail what plants and insects are in their forests and what medicinal, pestAresistant and other properties they hold. ;n recent years, pharmaceuticals researchers have tried to tap this e9pertise, calling it a 'race against time' -efore modern +, ways erode the communities. <nowledge -ase of the forest

The =% government's $ational #ancer ;nstitute tests 13 333 plants, algae, fungi and other organisms each year, loo<ing for cancer cures. ;t receives roots, leaves and other specimens from travelling -otanists, -ut ma<es increasing use of shamans, or traditional healers, and their encyclopaedic <nowledge of the -otany of their homelands. 7ordon #ragg, chief of the institute's natural products -ranch, recently wrote that 'we used to view these healers as practitioners of -lac< magic or voodoo. 1ut over the past five years, a more organised study of plants used -y these practitioners has made us realise how important and immense their <nowledge really is.' Already these researchers have turned up two plants A a %amoan tree and a #ameroon creeper A that appear a-le to fight 0;*, the virus that causes A;!%. Technology transfer is suddenly no longer a oneAway street, it is a dialogue. As Third 6orld governments and tri-al communities realise the potential value of their <nowledge, it will -ecome a potent commodity in the technology transfer -usiness. The <nowledge held in the shamans' huts and in farming communities may -e as vital to planetary salvation as that held in the la-oratories of the $orth. Agarwal says: '!eveloping countries must not sign the -iodiversity convention unless it reduces the e9isting asymmetries in access to <nowledge and technology.' Eually encouraging is the potential for %outhA%outh transfers of <nowledge and e9pertise. *ietnamese -iotechnologists, for instance, have recently used genetic material supplied -y the ;nternational "otato #enter in "eru to develop potato varieties that can thrive in *ietnam's climate. They are now at wor< on improved coffee varieties. ;n neigh-ouring Thailand, the $ational #entre for 7enetic ngineering and 1iotechnology has tapped the e9pertise of 1ritish university researchers, funded -y the 1ritish #ouncil and the Royal %ociety, to develop a local starch industry using native cassava. This <ind of technology transfer, the local development of products and processes tailorAmade for local conditions, and the e9change of ideas -etween countries at similar stages of development, is a more promising model for successful technology transfer than -lindly importing alien 6estern technologies. :oo<ed at this way, indigenous <nowledge is at least as valua-le to Third 6orld countries as 6estern scientific s<ills. The tric< is to marry the two. Review $ew %cientist, &2 April 1))&, *ol.1+, $o.1'1' "age ,&

Review: Rich e9istence in "reA#olum-ian America $;#> %A=$! R%


Amid the spectacle and controversy surrounding the Euincentenary cele-rations of #olum-us's discovery of

+2 the Americas, one unassaila-le truth emerges. uropean contact -rought to a dramatic and violent end the diversity and genius of America's "reA#olum-ian civilisations. Five hundred years later, <nowledge of the civilisations that were so utterly destroyed -y uropean e9pansion is a mar<eta-le commodity. /n 1& /cto-er 1,)&, #olum-us made his first landfall on the island of %an %alvador in the 1ahamas. ;n The Tainos, the veteran #ari--ean archaeologist ;rving Rouse gives a vivid account of the origins, archaeology and history of these island people Falso <nown as Arawa<sG. Following earlier migrations from #entral and then %outh America, Taino culture centred on "uerto Rico and 0ispaniola Fmodern 0aiti and !ominican Repu-licG from A! 1&33 onwards. 1uilding impressive '-allcourts', and worshipping deities called zemis, Taino culture -eEueathed us many words and ideas that shaped uropean perceptions of the Americas. From them we derive our <nowledge of cassava, pineapple, sweet potato and to-acco. This is a timely and comprehensive account of the first indigenous Americans to have greeted the uropean 'discoverers'. 6hile #olum-us retrieved precious little gold from his voyages around the Antilles, his successor #ortes fared -etter in (e9ico. ;n Aztecs, ;nga #lendinnen e9plores the social, cultural and ritual world of this famous and often misrepresented civilisation. This is a convincing, elegantly written effort to understand the Aztecs -y assessing their social attitudes and psychological motivations in aesthetics, gender relations and religious ritual as performance art. #lendinnen's approach is complemented in a succession of stunning colour photographs in Treasures of the 7reat Temple -y duardo (atos (octezuma. The coffee ta-le format well illustrates the artistic sophistication of Aztec culture. :ong -efore the confrontation in the 1?th century -etween the /ld and $ew 6orlds, however, the great #lassic (aya civilisation had flourished -etween A! +33 and A! )33 in the tropical rainforests of (esoA america. ;n %cri-es, 6arriors and >ings 6illiam Fash chronicles the achievements of the (aya through his wor< at the city of #opan in 0onduras. #opan's role in the development of (aya archaeology is charted in lavishly illustrated detail. Through e9cavation of rich tom-s, architectural reconstruction and the deciphering of hieroglyphics, the political history of this ancient (aya city has -een unloc<ed. "articularly fascinating is the way in which ritual warfare, -loodAsacrifice, astronomy and the (ayan '-allAgame' were integrated with ideology, sanctifying the role of omnipotent deified rulers such as the evocatively named %mo<e .aguar who came to power in A! ?&' and ruled for ?4 years. The cultural achievements of ancient American civilisation did not end at the isthmus of "anama, however. !iscovered and conEuered in 12+&, an ;nca empire of perhaps 1& million people e9tended some ,333 <ilometres along the Andes. The e9traordinary saga of the ;ncas and the long tradition of prehistoric Andean culture upon which they -uilt are admira-ly descri-ed -y (ichael (oseley in The ;ncas and Their Ancestors. ;n a The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz masterly study the author develops the main evolutionary themes of Andean civilisation. From the earliest %tone Age, through the genesis of agriculture and the invention of metallurgy, we are shown the interplay -etween culture and nature in the rise and fall of the great civilisations from the desert coast to the shores of :a<e Titicaca. The cultural achievements of Amazonian ;ndians far to the east of the Andes have proved more difficult to ascertain. =ntil recently, that is. ;n (ound -uilders of the Amazon Anna Roosevelt rewrites the cultural prehistory of lowland Amazonia su-stantially -y e9ploding the myth that tropical rainforests never gave rise to true civilisation. The (ara8oara culture flourished over a-out &3 333 sEuare <ilometres of savannah floodplain on (ara8o island at the mouth of the Amazon. For almost a millennium from a-out A! ,33, countless monumental earthen mounds served -oth as living areas and -urial grounds, and have yielded a rich variety of -eautiful polychrome pottery. %urrounded -y ela-orate earthwor<s, causeways and canals, these littleA<nown archaeological sites commemorate a culture whose influence can -e shown -y radiocar-on dating to have e9tended to the foothills of the Andes. #learly, as archaeological <nowledge has accumulated, our views of America's past have undergone drastic revision. $owhere is this -etter seen than in Ancient Road $etwor<s and %ettlement 0ierarchies in the $ew 6orld, edited -y #harles Trom-old, a volume which spans $orth, #entral and %outh America. (ultidisciplinary studies have investigated road networ<s from the semiarid lands of the #olorado plateau, the rainforests of Bucatan, the Andean cordillera and down into the seasonal savannah wetlands of eastern 1olivia. Focusing on the varied role of roads, paths and causeways in integrating economic and political activities, as well as for regional communication, this important -oo< provides a critical assessment of one of the least <nown endeavours of ancient American peoples. !espite the splendour and inventiveness of "reA #olum-ian America's many civilisations, the year 1,)& presaged total collapse. The effects of disease in particular were catastrophic. Throughout the Americas perhaps '3 per cent of the indigenous population succum-ed within a generation or so. ;n !isease, !epopulation and #ulture #hange in $orthAwestern $ew %pain, 121'A14?, !aniel Reff gives a detailed account that covers northwest (e9ico of what must have -een a terrifying commonplace throughout #olum-us's -rave $ew 6orld. America, it seems, was not only named -y uropeans -ut undermined, recast, and reAcreated -y them as well. The Tainos -y ;rving Rouse, Bale =niversity "ress, pp &11, J1?.)2 Aztecs -y ;nga #lendinnen, #am-ridge =niversity "ress, pp +)', J&,.)2 Treasures of the 7reat Temple -y duardo (atos (octezuma, Alti "u-lishing, pp 14), D+).)2

+? %cri-es, 6arriors and >ings -y 6illiam :. Fash, Thames N 0udson, pp 1)&, J&, The ;ncas and their Ancestors -y (ichael . (oseley, Thames N 0udson, pp &4&, J&, (ound -uilders of the Amazon -y Anna #urtenius Roosevelt, Academic "ress, pp ,)2, D') Ancient Road $etwor<s and %ettlement 0eirarchies in the $ew 6orld edited -y #harles !. Trom-old, #am-ridge =niversity "ress, pp &44, J23 !isease, !epopulation and #ulture #hange in $orthA western $ew %pain, 121'A14?, -y !aniel T. Reff, =niversity of =tah "ress, pp ++3, D++ Features $ew %cientist, 11 !ecem-er 1))+, *ol.1,3 $o.1)3+ "age +' years, until 1)23. 1ut from 1)23 to 1)'3, severe contamination from acid rain resulted in a drop in p0 A from a-out 2.2 to ,.2 A which represented a tenfold increase in the acidity of the la<e water. This acidification was caused mainly -y the -urning of coal containing high levels of sulphur several hundred miles away in the /hio River valley, causing formation of atmospheric sulphuric acid which was deposited in la<es down wind. missions from these upwind sources -egan around 1''3, with the industrialisation of the American (idwest. They rose sharply until around 1)&3, and remained relatively sta-le until 1)'3. Bet the acidification of the la<e water lagged 43 years -ehind the onset of the emissions, and +3 years -ehind their pea<. 6hy did this time lag happen@ The -uffering capacity of the soils in the watershed of the la<e was initially large enough to neutralise the acid from the atmosphere. 1ut after 43 years, this capacity was finally e9hausted, and the la<e -ecame vulnera-le to acidification. =nderstanding the -alance -etween two <ey phases A accumulation and release A is the <ey to predicting where the ne9t chemical time -om- is li<ely to go off, and trying to prevent it. This is important not least -ecause the phase where the to9ic chemicals are released or dispersed can happen Euite Euic<ly compared to the decades or even centuries it ta<es them to accumulate in soils and sediments. To9ic su-stances may interact with soil and sediments in two processes. 1oth involve chemical e9changes -etween solid and liEuid phases. Adsorption5desorption is where to9ins can -e either deposited at selected sites on solid surfaces or dissolve in the soil's liEuid phase. "recipitation5dissolution involves the deposition of to9ins as solids and their dissolution -ac< into solution. ;n la<es and rivers, adsorption5desorption ta<es place on the surfaces of solid particles suspended in the water. ;n soils, these e9changes occur -etween the surfaces of soil particles and the 'soil solution' A the moisture that stic<s to the soil particles or is held in pores within the soil structure. %ince most -iochemical reactions go on in solution, chemicals associated with solids are usually immo-ilised and -iologically inert, while dissolved chemicals are -iologically availa-le. ;f these dissolved chemicals are to9ic, environmental damage can result. The solid surfaces that interact with su-stances dissolved in natural waters and soil solutions include clay minerals, car-onates, Euartz, feldspar, organic solids and hydrated o9ides of manganese and iron. They contain negatively charged sites, which means that they attract positively charged ions, or cations. These fall into three main groups: heavy metal ions such as cadmium, lead, mercury, and zincH protons F0PGH and salts of sodium, calcium potassium and magnesium, also called -ase cations. The four -ase cations are nonto9ic and are commonly found in unpolluted soils. 1ut when soils and water are +?

/ur fathers' to9ic sins: For decades we have dumped to9ic chemicals in the soil without a second thought. 1ut there is a rec<oning on the way 6;::;A( %T;7:;A$; and 6;( %A:/(/$%
;nstant gratification has, as most of us <now, a strictly limited appeal: the ca<e that we crave may well leave us -ilious, the country cottage we 'must have' might -e riddled with dry rot. %o with e9perience, we can see that the real conseEuences of our decisions often emerge long after they are made. The environment reacts in a similar way to human actions A it has -uiltAin mechanisms which often delay the full effect of any damage until much later. /ne important mechanism is the a-ility of soils and sediments to retain to9ic su-stances. This is usually seen as a good thing -ecause it means chemical pollutants can -e loc<ed up in the soil, ma<ing them unavaila-le to harm plants and animals. This view may -e valid over the short term A say, several decades A -ut not in the long term. #ontaminated soils around the world mean that many people are literally sitting on 'chemical time -om-s'. To predict where and when they will go off we need to understand that soils and sediments are dynamic systems whose capacities to -uffer the environment from the effects of to9ic chemicals may not only change, -ut change in ways that are unpredicta-le. A good e9ample of a chemical time -om- that has already e9ploded is in the southAeast of the $etherlands, where phosphates from animal manure fertilisers have e9ceeded the natural -uffering capacity of the agricultural soils in which they are used. After four decades of continuous application, these soils are so impregnated with phosphates that they are now polluting ground and surface waters near-y. This pro-lem didn't come to light until very recently -ut will persist for the ne9t 23 years, even if phosphate use is reduced. A second e9ample of a chemical time -om- that has e9ploded is in the Adirondac< (ountains of $ew Bor< %tate. 0ere, the p0 of the water in 1ig (oose :a<e FFigure 1G remained nearly constant for at least &33

+4 polluted -y acid rain, these cations are replaced -y protons, which -ind more strongly to the negatively charged sites on the solid surfaces. The -ase cations, released from the adsorption sites, then dissolve in water. The process in soils polluted -y heavy metals is similar. ;t is precisely this e9change process that causes the protons and heavy metals to -e immo-ilised in the soil while releasing mo-ilised -ase cations. %o how long can a soil continue to act as a -uffer against to9ic chemicals -y immo-ilising them in this way@ /ne ma8or determining factor is the num-er of adsorption sites per unit of surface area A called the cation e9change capacity F# #G. This can -e measured, as can the percentage of the adsorption sites occupied -y -ase cations. (ultiplying these num-ers together gives a figure that is a good indicator of a soil's capacity to adsor- heavy metals. For a given volume of soil this capacity depends on the overall surface area of the particles in it. %oils made up of large particles tend to have a lower # # than those containing small particles. %o sandy soils which consist of fairly large Euartz particles Faround 133 to &33 micrometresG have a low # # compared with clayey soils where particles are very fine Fgenerally less than & micrometresG. 6hat triggers the -om-@ The second important process for the accumulation of to9ic chemicals, precipitation5dissolution, depends on how solu-le a compound is in water. Ta-le salt, for instance, is highly solu-le, whereas mercury sulphide is highly insolu-le. /nce again, it is the dissolved chemicals that are availa-le for -iological activity. Their solu-ility can -e measured. #hemists descri-e it in terms of the ratio of dissolved to precipitated compound in a saturated aEueous solution. For mercury sulphide, this eEuili-rium constant F>G is e9tremely small, 13 A2&, which means that most of the mercury is present as insolu-le sulphide. 1ut things are not Euite that simple. (ercury sulphide, li<e other metal sulphides, is chemically sta-le only under certain conditions. These depend on the redo9 potential of the soil A how good an o9idising agent it is compared with others. %ulphides are sta-le under reduced redo9 conditions, -ut when soils are e9posed to air the sulphides will -e o9idised, increasing the solu-ility of heavy metals. ;n general, if a relatively insolu-le pollutant accumulates in soil mainly -y precipitation, adding more will not greatly affect the amount of dissolved pollutant. #hanges in soil conditions may, though. /n the other hand, when adsorption is the main mechanism -y which a to9ic chemical accumulates in soils, adding more will gradually increase the ratio of adsor-ed to desor-ed chemical until the 'ma9imum sorption capacity' of the soil is reached. From this point, all added chemical is essentially availa-le for leaching and -ioaccumulation Fsee Figure &G. :arge sorption capacities are common in nonAacidic soils such as the -lac< chernozem soils of =<raine and southA west Russia, which are rich in clays, organic matter, ferric and manganese o9ides, and -ase cations. These The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz soils can cope with high inputs of heavy metals, and will not -ecome saturated for a century or more, depending on the level of pollution. 6hereas predominantly sandy soils, such as the orthic podzols of %candinavia, Finland, and northAwestern Russia A which are acidic, and have less organic matter and a smaller surface area per unit weight, reach saturation point much more rapidly. Their adsorption capacity is a-out five times lower than that of a typical chernozem soil. 0owever, chemical time -om-s may -e more serious in nonAacidic, organic, and clayey soils, -ecause, although accumulation time is usually longer here, the amount of stored pollutant is greater and they tend to e9plode with greater impact. %o what triggers the -om-@ 1ig (oose :a<e is a clear e9ample of what happens when levels of pollution reach saturation pointH -ut e9plosions may also occur une9pectedly, in areas of moderate contamination. These happen -ecause the ma9imum soil sorption capacity is not constant: it changes, depending on various chemical parameters. For heavy metals, the most important of these are acidity, the amount of organic matter present, salinity, # # and redo9 potential. A change in any of these <ey parameters can reduce the num-er of availa-le adsorption sites in the soil, and hence decrease the ma9imum adsorption capacity. These <ey soil properties are lin<ed in a complicated way to the geochemical cycles of sulphur, nitrogen, car-on, iron, manganese and calcium. %o ma8or changes in these chemical cycles -rought a-out -y human activities are also li<ely to significantly alter the -alance -etween adsorption and mo-ilisation of pollutants in the -iosphere. This suggests that current guidelines for classifying contaminated areas give a false sense of security. ;f the contamination of an area is -elow a certain level, it is considered safe, and all the attention and money is directed towards highly contaminated, heavily pu-licised sites. At present, none of the guidelines consider changing environmental conditions in moderately contaminated sites which may tip the -alance and release the accumulated contaminants in the future . This is a ma8or oversight. Tipping the -alance #hanges in redo9 potential seem to -e particularly important in triggering chemical time -om-s. /ne e9ample is in the $etherlands, where sediment spoils dredged from the Rhine to <eep navigation lanes open are causing a serious pro-lem. =ntil the early 1)43s, these sediments were applied, several metres thic<, to agricultural land. Then people discovered that this practice was contaminating the soil with to9ic heavy metals. ;nvestigations showed that changes in the redo9 potential of sediments following dredging results in the o9idation of metal sulphides, a process which creates the more solu-le metal sulphates. Today the spoils are considered hazardous waste and are stored, at great e9pense, in special sludge depots in Rotterdam's har-our. A similar thing happens when wetlands containing iron sulphides, called pyrites, are drained. %ulphide is o9idised to sulphate and then to sulphuric acid. ;n 1)'?,

+' ;ngemar Ren-erg reported a stri<ing e9ample of this in :a<e 1lamissus8on in northern %weden. 6ith a p0 of a-out +, it has -een called 'the most acidic la<e in %weden'. 1ut here acidification was not caused -y acid rain, -ut -y drainage of ad8acent wetlands which were converted to agricultural lands in the first half of the century. As well as acting directly on to9ic chemicals within soils, redo9 potential also strongly regulates the -ehaviour of microorganisms. "eter !oelman, senior adviser at ;nternational 6ater %upply #onsultants, an independent environment company in the $etherlands, -elieves that such regulation can also help to trigger chemical time -om-s. /ne e9ample -ac<ing his view is the methylation of inorganic metals -y microorganisms in the a-sence of o9ygen. This <ind of reaction was responsi-le for a notorious episode of mercury poisoning in the midA1)23s among villagers at (inimata 1ay in .apan. 0ere a chemicals company discharged large amounts of a sta-le mercury compound into the -ay, assuming that it could have no harmful effects. 0owever, under the anaero-ic conditions in sediments at the -ottom of the -ay, -acteria converted the harmless inorganic mercury into methyl mercury. This to9ic form of mercury then accumulated in the food chain especially in fish, a staple food among local villagers. (ethyl mercury is now fuelling another chemical time -om-. (ercury forms an amalgam with gold, and is widely used in 1razil, *enezuela, the "hilippines and ;ndonesia to e9tract gold from lowAgrade deposits. ;n 1razil's Amazon 1asin alone, &23 to +33 tonnes of mercury are used in gold mining every year. ;n 1))3 /laf (alm and colleagues from the Federal =niversity of Rio de .aneiro reported concentrations of mercury in edi-le carnivorous fish of as much as & to + micrograms per gram Fmu g5gG, wet weight, near the mining sites, and 1.2 mu g5g at a distance of nearly &33 <ilometres from the sites. The 60/'s recommended limits for human consumption are -etween 3.& to 3.+ m g5g. (ercuric rise and fall $ow 1razilian geochemist !rude :a #erda and 6im %alomons have wor<ed out the seEuence of events that triggers the dispersal of mercury and its su-seEuent conversion to methyl mercury. The goldAmercury amalgam is heated to purify the gold. *aporised mercury is then dispersed into the atmosphere and o9idised to ma<e ionic mercury F0g&PG through reactions involving ozone, solar radiation, and water vapour. /nce formed, ionic mercury is removed from the atmosphere -y rainfall and deposited in the Amazon 1asin, where it is converted to methyl mercury. (ethyl mercury leaches from soils into the rivers and is carried into reservoirs on the Amazon -uilt to generate hydroelectric power. These chemical time -om-s have -een isolated events. 1ut in the future, factors such as climate change could have huge effects on elemental cycles which are lin<ed to soil properties. This could in turn fundamentally alter the way the -iosphere adsor-s and releases to9ic materials. Temperature and rainfall are lin<ed to soil +' varia-les such as organic matter content Fwithin the car-on cycleG, nitrification Fwithin the nitrogen cycleG, soil moisture and rate of leaching. These varia-les are in turn lin<ed to # #, p0, and redo9 potential. ;f these were to change radically, to9ic chemicals stored out of harm's way in soils and sediments could -e mo-ilised and dispersed. 1ut if we could predict when chemical time -om-s would e9plode, how would this help@ #onventional engineering solutions for the cleanup or isolation of contaminated soils and sediments are far too e9pensive to -e applied over large areas. A few years ago, %alomons and =lrich Forstner of the Technical =niversity of 0am-urgA0ar-urg in 7ermany proposed 'geochemical engineering', a concept that -orrows much from natural mechanisms. For e9ample, sulphide o9idation could -e prevented -y <eeping soils anaero-ic through the management of hydrologyH to9ic metals could -e immo-ilised through the addition of materials with adsor-ing or neutralising capacitiesH wastes such as phosphogypsum FsulphateG could -e mi9ed with dredged material or sewage sludge to convert the metals to insolu-le sulphidesH and o9idation of metal wastes from mines to acids could -e avoided -y covering the mine spoil with clayArich soils, or 'drowning' the waste dumps with water. #hemical time -om-s are not caused solely -y high inputs of to9ic chemicals. Rather, they are the result of comple9 interactions that transform soils and sediments from sin<s that accumulate to9ic chemicals into sources that disperse them. To tac<le the pro-lem we need to loo< at the whole picture A acidification, eutrophication, soil salinisation and heavy metal pollution A as part of the same pro-lem. Research on chemical time -om-s is 8ust -eginning. 6illiam %tigliani is scientific leader of the industrial meta-olism pro8ect at the ;nternational ;nstitute for Applied %ystems Analysis in :a9en-urg, Austria. 6im %alomons is head of the soil chemistry department at the ;nstitute for AgroA-iology and %oil Fertility in the $etherlands. 1oth are mem-ers of the %cientific Advisory 1oard of the #hemical Time 1om- "ro8ect, a colla-orative effort -etween the ;nternational ;nstitute of Applied %ystems Analysis and The $etherlands (inistry of 0ousing, "hysical "lanning and nvironment. 1: Redo9 potential: the chemical switch /ne of the fundamental reEuirements of life is the need to generate -iochemical energy -y the o9idation of organic car-on to car-on dio9ide. The most efficient energyAproducing mechanism is respiration, in which molecular o9ygen F/&G is the o9idising agent. ;n soils, waters and sediments, however, the supply of /& is often limited. $onetheless, the arth's aEuatic and terrestrial ecosystems contain microorganisms which can e9tract o9ygen from other o9ygenAcontaining compounds. These include nitrate, manganese and iron o9ides, sulphate and organic car-on.

+) The type of molecule used first depends on how good an o9idising agent it is in relation to others A in chemical terms, its 'redo9' potential. /9idation -y molecular o9ygen has the highest redo9 potential, so molecular o9ygen is the first compound to -e consumed. $itrate has the ne9t highest redo9 potential, so it is consumed ne9t. The seEuence continues with manganese o9ide, ferric hydro9ide, sulphate, and finally to organic car-on. The redo9 potential is a <ind of 'chemical switch' which determines the order in which o9ygenAcontaining chemicals are used -y microorganisms to e9tract o9ygen. &: The acid test #an changing environmental conditions in moderately contaminated soils tip the -alance towards the e9plosion of a chemical time -om-@ To test this hypothesis 6illiam %tigliani and "eter .affe of "rinceton =niversity in the =% decided to investigate the -uildAup of cadmium in agricultural soils of the Rhine -asin. 6e considered not only the total cadmium concentration in the soils, -ut also the effect of acidification, -ecause we already <new that metal concentrations in the soil solution depend to a large e9tent on p0. ;ncreasing the soil's acidity will increase the amount of dissolved cadmium, ma<ing this to9ic metal more availa-le for upta<e -y plants. The two ma8or sources of cadmium are the atmosphere Fwhich contains cadmium from industrial activityG and phosphate fertiliser, containing cadmium as an impurity. 6e estimated that since 1)23 these sources have nearly dou-led concentrations of cadmium in the soil. /ne way to com-at acidity is -y applying lime to agricultural soils, a longAstanding practice among farmers for increasing the productivity of their lands. Traditionally, liming has not -een seen as a way to offset acid rain, which now poses a ma8or pro-lem in the Rhine -asin. ;n areas suffering from acid rain, more lime must -e used to compensate for the added source of acidity. ;f additional liming is not done systematically, the soils may acidify and the cadmium concentration in soil solution will increase, raising the ris< of crop contamination. Rhineland farmers, though they may not realise it, have a -ig responsi-ility for ensuring that this particular time -om- does not go off. ;n our study we also estimated human inta<e of cadmium. 6e wanted to loo< at the twin effects of increased cadmium in soil and increased soil acidification Fsee FigureG. #alculations -ased on cadmium increases since 1)23, -ut assuming a constant p0 of appro9imately ? Fwhich is typical of agricultural lands in the -asinG, showed that human inta<e of cadmium, although dou-ling -etween 1)23 and 1))3, would still -e well -elow the 60/'s limits. 0owever, we also calculated that, given current cadmium levels, an increase in the soil's acidity of 8ust half a p0 unit A from ? to 2.2 A would cause the cadmium inta<e relative to 1)23 to increase -y a-out fourAandAaAhalf times, slightly e9ceeding the 60/ limits. A decrease of one p0 unit would result in a ninefold increase A a-out dou-le the 60/ limit. Further calculations showed that at 1)23 cadmium levels, a decrease of half a p0 unit would result in an inta<e of cadmium well -elow the 60/ limit. ven with a drop of a whole p0 unit, inta<e would e9ceed the lower limit only slightly. %o, one ma8or impact of cadmium accumulation in the soil since 1)23 has -een a loss in the soil's capacity to immo-ilise cadmium at safe limits during times of acidification. /ne way for soil acidification to happen on a large scale is -y converting farmland to forest. This could easily happen in urope in the ne9t few decades. #onversion to forest land in the uropean =nion is estimated at '.2 million hectares over the years from 1)'2 to &3&3. ;f this change ta<es place without the continuation of liming A which will certainly happen if policy ma<ers and land use planners are unaware of the potential for triggering a chemical time -om- A the p0 of the former agricultural soils is li<ely to drop -y -etween 1 and 1.2 p0 units within a few decades over much of the region. This could result in a significant increase of cadmium in soil solution within 13 to 12 years, and increased leaching to groundAwater. Although the soil will purge itself of cadmium -y the process of acidification, pro-lems could arise in areas where drin<ing water supplies come form shallow groundwater reservoirs. Figures: "0 levels measured against fish stoc<s (a9imum soil adsorption capacity Average inta<e of cadmium, 1)23A1))3 Technology $ew %cientist, 12 .uly 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?4+

Technology: An airship cruise over the Amazon canopy /(AR %ATTA=R


T0 : A! R of a -izarre e9pedition to study the canopy of the Amazon rainforest from a giant airship set off for %ao "aulo from France last wee<. 0is first aim is to coa9 formal permission for the study out of the 1razilian government. 1razil is still smarting from criticisms -y the developed countries of the way it has managed the Amazon, the world's richest repository of species. As a result, foreign scientists are finding it difficult to o-tain permits to study the environment. The leader of the e9pedition, Francis 0alle, of the =niversity of (ontpellier ;; in southern France, said that the research would -e uniEue -ecause the airship offers access to the roof of Amazonia. '$o one has studied the canopy of the rainforest, yet there is much more happening there,' 0alle said. The canopy captures the energy of the %un and is teeming with life. Researchers who have tried in the past to study the topmost layers of the forest have relied on aerial wal<ways and platforms. 0owever, these structures must -e fastened to the larger, stronger -ranches of the trees,

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

,3 which are several metres -elow the canopy. The airship can float a raft carrying up to 13 scientists a-ove the forest. The scientists can choose e9actly which group of tree tops they wish to land upon. ';t's rather li<e spreading a hand<erchief over the long grass in your garden,' e9plained Adrian 1ell from the =niversity #ollege of $orth 6ales, in 1angor, one of the ?3 scientists ta<ing part in the e9pedition. The airship will -e a-le to deposit the raft where it is reEuired, ferry scientists -etween the raft and -ase camp, collect the raft after two to three days and deposit it at a new site. The raft, designed -y 7illes -ersolt, is made of inflated ru--er 'sausages' 8oined together in the shape of a he9agon. %i9 radial 'sausages' strengthen the platform -y 8oining the perimeter to a car-onAfi-re disc in the middle of the raft. A tough net covers the whole structure. 0alf of the scientists ta<ing part in the e9pedition are from urope and the other half from the =niversity of %ao "aulo and the 1razilian $ational ;nstitute for Amazon Research F;$"AG. The team includes specialists in a wide range of disciplines. '6e are interested in every aspect of tropical rainforests. $o-ody <nows anything a-out them so everything is new. 6e may focus more in a few years,' 0alle said. 0alle's own interest is in the way that plants and animals evolve together. 0e said that scientists would also -e studying the efficiency of photosynthesis in tissues at different levels in the forest. 1ell, a plant morphologist and anatomist, hopes to study the architecture of trees in the rainforest. 0e will note the location of -uds on -ranches in relation to the surrounding -ranches and to incident light. 'The -ud on any one plant has a repertoire of possi-ilities A it may -e programmed to develop into a temporary shoot, a flower, a main -ranch or to remain dormant.' 1ell will collect -uds to dissect in the hope that their structure will provide clues a-out which way the -uds are destined to develop. The e9pedition should prove more successful than 0alle's last attempt to study the -otany of the aerial rainforest, in 1)'?, when he floated a-ove the forests of French 7uiana in a hotAair -alloon. 6ind speeds at the top of the canopy, however, were much higher than 0alle estimated and the -alloon proved too wayward for his li<ing. /n one occasion, the -alloon landed in a hole in the canopy and had to -e rescued -y a helicopter from the French army. Airships, however, are much more manoeuvra-le. The current model of the 'canopy raft', as 0alle calls it, should -e a great improvement on the model he used in 1)'?, which was held together with yellow netting. The netting appeared opaEue and 0alle and the pilot could not see what was underneath the raft. The new net is -lac< and transparent. Another improvement is to incorporate holes or trap doors in the net of the new raft, ma<ing it easier for scientists to clim- in and out. The ,3 radial lim-s of the raft are also more rigid than the 1)'? model. This feature removes the ris< that half of the raft could -e pushed -y -ranches into a vertical position when it lands. 1ell says that the raft will provide the scientists with a 'uniEue opportunity to visit a ha-itat that no one has e9plored'. 0e draws an analogy -etween the development of the canopy raft and the development of eEuipment for deepAsea diving. 6ithout that technology, he says, we could not have studied coral reefs. '6e will see the canopy raft -eing used more and more in the future,' 0alle said. 0e has tried other methods of studying the canopy A not as glamorous as the airship, perhaps, -ut no less intriguing. ;n "eninsular (alaysia, for e9ample, local people have learned the language of a species of mon<ey, (acaca nemestrina, and have trained some of them to collect fruit and flowers from the canopy. =nfortunately, (. nemestrina lives only in %outheast Asia. 6ill 0alle consider using a similar helper@ '6e don't need to,' he says confidently, 'we have something much -etter.' Features $ew %cientist, 14 August 1))1, *ol.1+1 $o.14'& "age +,

(edicines from the rainforest: The tropics contain thousands of species of plants which could provide medicines for the future. 1ut as forests disappear, so do the local people who guard their secrets #0R;% 1;R! and /(AR %ATTA=R
"lants already provide us with a Euarter of our medicines and they could produce many more. Bet this great resource is -eing destroyed while its secrets remain largely untapped. 6hile less than 2 per cent of the world's li<ely total of plants have -een identified to date, ?3 333 species A around one in four of those that have -een identified A are <nown to face e9tinction -y the year &323. "lants are not the only casualty of the environmental damage caused -y people's hunger for land and resources. ;n 1razil alone, uropean colonists have destroyed more than )3 indigenous tri-es, each with a distinct culture, since the early 1)33s. 6ith them have gone centuries of accumulated <nowledge of the medicinal value of forest species. 1elatedly, scientists, health -odies, voluntary agencies and others are -eginning to understand the need to study and conserve not only the plants themselves -ut also the vast and irreplacea-le <nowledge of their healing properties that is guarded -y traditional cultures. 6itch doctors, shamans and tri-al healers, long derided and re8ected -y 6estern medicine, are now -eing ta<en seriously again -y some scientists at least -ecause of their <nowledge of plants and her-al medicine.

,1 ;n particular, increasing attention is -eing paid to the potential of rainforest plants as sources of new drugs, and of the inha-itants of rainforests as a valua-le source of <nowledge. Already, many widely used drugs originate from tropical species used -y forest dwellers. Kuinine for malaria, curare as a muscle rela9ant and vincristine for the treatment of leu<aemia are well <nown e9amples, -ut there are thousands of others. The realisation that rainforests are an apothecary's treasure trove comes not a moment too soon. (ore than half the world's estimated 13 million species of plants and animals live in the tropical rainforests. %ome estimates are even higher F'#ounting species one -y one', $ew %cientist, 11 August 1))3G. 1ut according to the 6orld 6ide Fund for $ature F66FG, nearly half of the world's rainforest has already -een destroyed and a further &2 to +3 million hectares are lost each year. This can only have dire conseEuences for the future of medicine. Rainforest plants are rich in soAcalled secondary meta-olites, particularly al<aloids, which -iochemists -elieve they produce in order to protect them from disease or attac<s -y insects. /ther secondary meta-olites act as poisons or provide odours and colours that attract pollinators or warn off predators. The (adagascar periwin<le, from which the antiAcancer drug vincristine is produced, contains ?3 different al<aloids. %uch su-stances often have Eualities that are useful to human -eings, yet the species that produce them are -eing destroyed -efore they are even counted. Reversing the trend of destruction is now an international priority. 1ut saving the rainforests and the plants that live in them will reEuire glo-al cooperation in which many conflicts of interest A nota-ly -etween developed and underdeveloped nations A will have to -e resolved. /ne strategy which is -eing increasingly promoted within this de-ate is the formation of 'e9tractive reserves' in the forests that can support sustaina-le development. The late #hico (endez campaigned on -ehalf of ru--er tappers for the creation of e9tractive reserves in Amazonia which could support sustaina-le e9ploitation of the forests. 6or<ers within the reserves would collect ru--er, -razil nuts, cocoa and other forest products and sell them to ur-an -uyers. %ustaina-ility would -e guaranteed -ecause wor<ers must maintain their environments or ris< losing their livelihoods. 1razil already has some e9tractive reserves, although there is still conflict -etween commercial loggers and the indians and ru--er tappers who live in the reserves. The development of new drugs from the forests could provide additional arguments and incentives against the destruction of the forests -y logging. The 66F is a prominent supporter of the idea of e9tractive reserves. ;t argues that a prereEuisite for the formation of such areas is a thorough <nowledge of the resources they offer, including medicinal plants. ;n the northAeast Amazon, (ar< "lot<in and other 66F researchers have wor<ed with tri-es such as the Tirio, 6ayana and >ayapo since 1)'1 to compile a 'catalogue of useful Amazonian plants'. /ne of "lot<in's most e9citing finds is the weeAdee plant, which -elongs to the The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz nutmeg family. Amazon indians treat fungal infections of the s<in with weeAdee sap. 0arvard researchers in 1),3 failed to su-stantiate such claims, -ut more recent studies in 1razil have revealed two components of the plant with antiAfungal properties. 6eeAdee attracted attention -ecause unrelated tri-es on opposite sides of the Amazon -asin recognise its effectiveness against the same ailments. ;n such cases there is greater li<elihood of finding a pharmacological -asis for the claims. The >ayapo practise a 'comple9 medical science that we are only 8ust -eginning to recognise', says researcher (arie "aule $ougaret, who has wor<ed with the tri-e. The >ayapo distinguish &23 types of dysentery and prescri-e a different treatment for each type. ach family is responsi-le for cultivating particular plants and <nowing which species grow -etter together than apart. (any plants are safe and effective only after comple9 treatments that have -een developed over generations and passed on as rituals. %uch preparations sometimes have effects that scientists cannot trace to individual components. For e9ample, 7hanaians treat -acterial infections with a preparation made from #ryptolepis sanguinolenta. Although the preparation does show -roadAspectrum anti-iotic activity, la-oratory tests fail to reveal any activity in the individual components. Another pro8ect sponsored -y the 66F is in the >orup rainforest in 6est Africa, where the 66F carried out a survey in colla-oration with the #ameroonLs #entre for the %tudy of (edical "lants. The aim was to assist rural development -ased on sustaina-le yields of forest products. ;n each of the 11 remote villages in the study, local farmers who had her-alist s<ills helped researchers to investigate surrounding forest areas in an e9ercise <nown as 'wal< and tell'. This led to a her-arium of &?3 dried plant specimens which were then e9amined -y local e9perts, selected -y tri-al chiefs, who descri-ed the uses of the different specimens. The result was a collection of hundreds of her-al remedies. The 66F team in the >orup is now wor<ing with "eter 6aterman, professor of phytochemistry at the =niversity of %trathclyde, who heads a team which has contracts with drug companies for the provision of active compounds from plants. /ne of 6aterman's pro8ects involves a #osta Rican plant, Meulania Euidonia, which contains a num-er of secondary meta-olites with selective cytoto9ic activity, and so could possi-ly -e used to treat cancer. #olla-oration with the 66F >orup team has resulted in the discovery of a related species of plant which is now under investigation. 66F will receive part of any royalties arising from this wor< specifically for the purpose of protecting the forest. ;n some cases, pro8ects li<e the 66F ones have -een initiated -y local people themselves. A group of school students in steli, northern $icaragua, too< the issue into their own hands with a pro8ect to <eep alive local <nowledge of medicinal plants. The aim was not only to conserve <nowledge of hundreds of plants that had -een handed down over generations, -ut also to use that <nowledge to replace e9pensive modern drugs with local su-stitutes.

,& productive, than<s ta9onomists.' to the guidance of >ew's

Alicia 1alladores, who designed the pro8ect while she was still a 1?AyearAold student, named it Rescate, or Rescue. %tudents interviewed local curanderos Ffol< healersG and parteras FmidwivesG a-out traditional remedies. They made a list of more than +33 plants, of which 42 were commonly used. 6ith support from (;$%A, $icaragua's (inistry of 0ealth, and 1ritish charities, the pro8ect has grown and now has pharmacies in three towns and a farm for growing many of the her-s. #linical trials have confirmed that camomile, one of the preparations suggested to the pro8ect, is effective against diarrhoea, a ma8or <iller in Third 6orld countries. 6or<ers are also investigating the guava fruit as another possi-le diarrhoea treatment, and eucalyptus and lemon grass as treatments for respiratory diseases. The community mental health wor<ers have started to su-stitute her-al teas for drugs. The practice of traditional medicine is -y no means confined only to pro8ects such as those in $icaragua and the Amazon. /layiwola A<erele, who heads the Traditional (edicine "rogramme of the 6orld 0ealth /rganization F60/G estimates that '3 per cent of the world's ,333 million inha-itants still rely chiefly on traditional medicines for their primary health care needs. ;n a few countries this approach is actively supported -y the government. ;n #hina, for e9ample, health professionals use medicinal plants to treat ,3 per cent of their patients reEuiring primary health care. The state owned #hinese !rugs #ompany now has plantations covering +33 333 hectares to assure supplies of drugs. %imilarly, the government of %ri :an<a recognises the importance of traditional medicine and encourages its practice. The =niversity of #olom-o's Ayurveda #ollege trains students in traditional medicine and a special medical council is responsi-le for registering and licensing practitioners. There are now some 1& 333 registered practitioners in the country. ;n the developed countries, medical practice and the pharmaceuticals companies that supply it with drugs have generally moved away from dependence on plants and their healing properties over the past century. 1ut in recent years there has -een a revival of interest in the possi-ilities of developing medicines from plants. The focus of interest is the wealth of potentially useful plants in the tropical rainforests. A group of -iochemists at the Royal 1otanic 7ardens at >ew, in :ondon, -egan investigating tropical plants for their possi-le medicinal uses in the early 1)'3s F'1otany -rea<s into the candy store', $ew %cientist, &? August 1)')G. The researchers screen plant e9tracts for as wide a range of -iological activity as possi-le. According to :inda Fellows, who heads the pro8ect: 'This approach has led to compounds with possi-le uses in cancer, dia-etes and A;!%, as well as new antiAinsect agents. ; must stress how much we rely on >ew -otanists to help us in our search. /ur first step is always to loo< at species related to those <nown to contain useful compounds. This sideways searching has -een very ,&

The success of this approach has encouraged 1ritain's (edical Research #ouncil and the 1ritish Technology 7roup to fund part of the >ew chemical programme. Researchers at the =niversity of /9ford and the =niversity of #am-ridge have wor<ed with those at >ew to develop a potential antiAA;!% drug, -utylA!$., which is now in clinical trials in the =%. 1utylA!$. is a derivative of deo9yno8irimycin, which comes from the -lac< mul-erry, (orus nigra. %hould the trials of the drug prove effective, >ew will put its share of the profits -ac< into conservation and A;!% research. At the international level, the 60/'s Traditional (edicine "rogramme see<s to implement a 1)44 60/ resolution which urged governments to give 'adeEuate importance to the utilisation of their traditional systems of medicine'. The programme operates through what it calls 'colla-orating centres' in many different countries. The research findings of more than &3 of these centres are now collated on $apralert, a computer data-ase at the #entre for Traditional (edicine in #hicago. $apralert is an acronym for $atural "roducts AlertH it contains more than '3 333 sources of information on the chemistry, pharmacology and ethnoA-otany of natural products. Iavier :ozoya directs the 1iomedical Research =nit on Traditional and 0er-al (edicine A one of the 60/'s colla-orating centres A in (e9ico. The unit researches the pharmacology, chemistry and -otany of plants that were <nown to the Aztecs, (ayans and other earlier civilisations. :ozoya views the revival of interest in medicinal plants in the 6est as part of a '-ac< to nature' movement which has ta<en root to the e9tent that scientific research into traditional remedies can now -e seen as 'proper' science. 0e contrasts this ironically with the situation in many developing countries A #hina and %ri :an<a apart A where health professionals view research on medical plants as outdated and the use of such remedies as the domain of underAprivileged indigenous groups. Although :ozoya welcomes a revival of interest in natural medicine products, he is concerned that research into them is now -eing led -y industrial nations. '6ill we in the future have to spend scarce foreign currency to reimport our own plants and e9tracts@' he as<s. 0e points out that the tradition of using medicinal plants survives in its purest form among Third 6orld peoples, if not their medical esta-lishments. 'This ma<es it easier for us to identify the plants which need to -e scientifically evaluated. !rugs of the types now -eing studied -y modern science could -e manufactured with the level of technology already attained in many developing countries.' /ne 1ritish company that has recognised fears such as :ozoya's is 1iotics, -ased in %usse9. 1iotics acts as a -ro<er for developing countries, finding them -uyers for their medicinal plants among the pharmaceuticals companies of industrialised countries. 1iotics has so far

,+ supplied companies such as %mith>line 1eecham and 7la9o with plants from 7hana, (alaysia, Thailand and #hina. The suppliers and 1iotics receive an initial payment for the plants. The companies screen the material for -iological activity. ;f this leads to products, the suppliers are guaranteed royalties in return for their materials. According to Ro-ert Thomas, a director of 1iotics, companies have shown great interest in the scheme. 1ut given that only 1 plant in 13 333 will lead to a commercial product, companies are often unwilling to fund speculative research. %o 1iotics has now set up a factory to ma<e e9tracts and screen them for activity. A few years ago very few drug companies were interested in the <ind of wor< that 1iotics is doing, -ut this is now changing rapidly. !ozens of drug companies were represented at a conference on drugs from natural sources organised -y ;1# Technical %ervices in :ondon in .une. This was the latest of numerous international conferences on this topic in the past two years. All these initiatives involve a recognition of the immense potential that plants from tropical areas have as the providers of drugs for the medicine of the future, especially when com-ined with local people's <nowledge of their properties. The sustaina-le e9ploitation of these plants may -e one way to reverse the trend towards the destruction of the rainforest. 1ut moves in this direction can only -e a small part of a wider international strategy to protect the forests. 1iodiversity convention The international community is now addressing this pro-lem. ;n Fe-ruary the first tal<s too< place on how -est to conserve what remains of the arth's wildernesses. The tal<s, which aim to draw up a glo-al convention on -iodiversity, were initiated -y the =$ nvironment "rogramme, the 66F and the 6orld #onservation =nion. $egotiations -egan at the =$ " headEuarters in $airo-i and have su-seEuently moved to (adrid Fsee This 6ee<, ? .ulyG. "rogress is slowly -eing made. 1ut conflicts -etween industrialised and Third 6orld countries over the scope of the convention are a constant stum-ling -loc< to agreement. The Third 6orld is rich in -iological diversity, -ut poor in the e9pertise necessary to e9ploit it. ;ndustrial countries have the money and e9pertise to e9ploit -iodiversity, -ut they have less -iodiversity of their own to wor< with. They want the Third 6orld to save its -iodiversity. 1ut the developing countries want more than 8ust help with conservationH they want access to the same technologies that ena-le industrialised countries to profit from the e9ploitation of -iodiversity. A parallel issue, also currently -eing negotiated at the international level, is that of rights of ownership over varieties of plants that have commercial value as food or medicines. The plant -reeders of industrialised countries have for years en8oyed such rights, -ut many of the genes they have used in their -reeding programmes come from plants collected or cultivated in the Third 6orld Fsee The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz 'The 6est pays up for Third 6orld seeds', $ew %cientist, 11 (ayG. Third 6orld countries are now demanding recompense for their contri-utions, a demand which latterly has the support of the =$ Food and Agricultural /rganization FFA/G in its ;nternational =nderta<ing on "lant 7enetic Resources. The precise mechanism for ensuring that Third 6orld farmers have due financial incentives for their wor< in conserving genetic resources has yet to -e agreed. 1ut if agreement is reached, then 'royalties' on plant varieties could well -e used to help to preserve rainforests. To succeed, sustaina-le e9ploitation depends on positive action at every possi-le level. ;nternational agreements, a more eEuita-le approach from industry, structures that encourage local initiatives, scientific research and support from government institutions and conservationists all have contri-utions to ma<e. Fellows's comment on the wor< at >ew is relevant to all: '6e would -e delighted if our wor< contri-uted to finding a cure for A;!%, or a new and safe crop protection agent. 1ut ; suspect that it will ultimately -e 8udged -y the contri-ution we ma<e to increasing pu-lic confidence that there is money to -e made -y leaving plants alone,' she says. 'The day some financier -uys a tract of forest as a longAterm investment in chemical information, rather than as a source of tim-er, we shall <now we are winning.' (agnolia returns to traditional medicine Fol< medicine has a prominence in the "eople's Repu-lic of (ongolia that is surprising to the 6estern eye. ;t is neither the last resort of the poor nor a lu9ury for the wealthy. /nce -anned -y the postArevolutionary government in the name of progress and development, it is now valued -y the practitioners of orthodo9 medicine, government scientists and administrators as well as -y the rest of society. ;ts coAe9istence with conventional medicine is giving rise to new drugs which may yet find their way into 6estern pharmacopoeias. The official resurgence of traditional (ongolian medicine -egan in 1)4+, when the government created the ;nstitute of Fol< (edicine in =lan 1ator. The institute was set up to -e a research centre for plants of medicinal value identified in traditional te9ts. #hemists wor<ed to isolate active su-stances from the plants and test the promising ones, first on animals and later on humans in clinical trials. The first products were so effective that news a-out them soon spread, until pu-lic pressure forced the institute to start seeing patients. A new hospital with 23 -eds opened in /cto-er 1)') and more wards have since -een opened to accommodate another 23 -eds. $e9t year, the institute is to create a new faculty of traditional medicine with the aim of training -etween ,3 and 23 people a year as amchees, practitioners of traditional medicine. The roots of (ongolian medicine lie in the 1uddhistA lamaist tradition of Ti-et. ;nterchange of <nowledge -etween the two countries reached a pea< during the 1?th and 14th centuries, when (ongolia effectively ruled

,, Ti-et and sent many of its lamas there for training in religion and medicine. Ti-etan -ecame the language of learning. Ti-etan medicine is itself rooted in Ayurveda, the ancient medical system of ;ndia, and in #hinese medicine. :i<e fol< medicine almost anywhere in the world, all these systems depend on a detailed <nowledge of plants and their therapeutic potential. The demise of the lamaist theocracy in (ongolia and the su-seEuent closure of the monasteries left no one to care for the sacred -oo<s and few people in possession of the old Ti-etan medical te9ts. The te9ts went underground in the %talinist years after 1)+4, when the practice of fol< medicine was made illegal. "eople <ept copies of Ti-etan medical te9ts hidden away until a change of political climate allowed them to resurface. Today, =lan 1ator -oasts a li-rary of more than &33 Ti-etan te9ts, larger even than the present collection in :hasa. The credit for that achievement goes largely to one man, !octor >haidev. >haidev had trained as a pharmacist. 1ut he <new that if he wanted to find out a-out medicinal plants his only source was Ti-etan te9ts. 1etween 1)23 and 1)?2, >haidev scoured the country, gathering the Ti-etan -oo<s then considered useless and rifling them for information on medicinal plants. 0e has since donated his entire collection to the ;nstitute of Fol< (edicine, which he helped to set up. >haidev also collected hundreds of plants with therapeutic potential during his e9peditions to the countryside. /ne that interested him particularly was a plant referred to as parvat in the medical te9ts he had collected. "arvat caught his eye -ecause it is the %ans<rit word for 'infectious disease', a phrase used at that time to descri-e 8aundice and hepatitis. >haidev's special interest was in liver disease, prevalent in (ongolia at that time. The te9ts spo<e in glowing terms of the efficacy of decoctions made from the stem, leaves and flowers of the plant. "arvat is Adonis mongolica, a mem-er of the Ranunculaceae F-uttercupG family. >haidev was surprised to find that decoctions of Adonis had no effect at all on liver disease. Adonis e9tract did, however, have a powerful and direct effect on heart muscle, causing it to contract. Further research showed that Adonis contains cardiac glycosides that stimulate the nerves supplying heart muscle in much the same way as digo9in does. !igo9in is a purified component of !igitalis purpurea, the common fo9glove, and is routinely used to treat congestive heart failure. "reliminary trials of the drug on 23 patients with various symptoms of congestive heart failure suggested that Adonis is as effective as digo9in in stimulating heart contraction. (ore importantly, unli<e digo9in, Adonis produced no side effects in any of the patients. ;t is >haidev's -elief that the early Ti-etan her-alists mistoo< Adonis for a liver drug -ecause liver disease is a common later manifestation of heart failure. They would not have <nown that those of their patients who recovered from 8aundice did so not -ecause the drug acted on the liver, -ut -ecause it acted on the root cause of the 8aundice. The pharmacology of Rhododendron Adamsii flowers has -een the focus of >haidev's latest wor<. 0e heard that herdsmen made tea from rhododendron flowers to give them strength. 0is studies convinced him that rhododendron flowers contain a stimulant that com-ats fatigue and he claims that the product made out of them at the institute today is compara-le to ginseng. The rhododendron product is now a popular tonic among (ongolian athletes.

$ature's a-undant medicine chest


T0 =% $ational #ancer ;nstitute has identified +333 plants that are active against cancer cells. %eventy per cent of them come from the rainforest. ;n 1)'3, the mar<et in the =% alone for prescriptions containing active principles from plants was worth more than dollars ' -illion. The world figure now e9ceeds dollars 23 -illion. The following are 8ust a few of the important medicines that are derived from plants: The steriod hormone diosgenin, an essential ingredient of the first contraceptive pills, was discovered in wild yams from (e9ico and 7uatemala. (ore than +333 other plants are used around the world to control fertility. !octors have treated hypertension with reserpine for nearly +3 years in the 6est, -ut the shru- that produces it has -een used in her-al tranEuillisers for millennia. %odium cromoglycate, the active component of ;ntal, the most commercially successful drug for treating asthma, was developed from su-stances e9tracted from a (editerranean plant used since ancient times for the treatment of colic. Fors<olin, from #/: =% F/R%>/;:%, was developed -y 0oechst in ;ndia for treating heart disease. ;t now appears that fors<olin may -e even more valua-le in treating lung and eye diseases. (ore than +33 scientific papers have now -een pu-lished on this compound, and indicator of the enormous interest it has generated. Bet its healing properties were first descri-ed in the %ans<rit medical literature Fthe AB=R* !AG of the ancient 0indus. "ilocarpine is an al<aloid which comes from ";:/#AR"=% .A1/RA$!;;. ;t is used in the treatment of glaucoma. Thiau-rine is an anti-iotic which comes from various species of A%";:;A. $a-ilone is an antiemetic derived from #A$$A1;% %AT;*A Fmari8uanaG. ;t is not only the plants of the rainforest that are a rich source of medicines. Animal products, such as the venom of hundreds of different spiders, are also -eing investigated for possi-le medicinal uses. Already, there have -een some stri<ing successes, such as the effective ,,

,2 new antiAhypertensive drug #aptopril, which is derived from an Amazonian sna<e venom. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 1, /cto-er 1)'), *ol.1&, $o.1?'?

AngloA1razilian forest pro8ects mar< climate of cooperation ! 11; (A#>:;$


%#; $T;%T% from 1razil and 1ritain hope to 8oin forces soon in a pro8ect to investigate in unprecedented detail how the destruction of tropical forests affects the climate. The pro8ect, called the AngloA1razilian Amazon #limate /-servation %tudy FA1RA#/%G, is one of several that signify the growing scientific cooperation -etween the two nations. ;t will proceed as soon as their governments formalise arrangements for the pro8ect. :ynda #hal<er, a 8unior minister at 1ritain's !epartment of the nvironment, spea<ing earlier this month at a conference in :ondon, announced the pac<age of proposed AngloA1razilian research pro8ects and e9pressed hope that some of them would -e under way -y the end of this year. The colla-orative agreement comes at a time when 1razil is losing patience with other nations that accuse it of mismanaging its native rainforests. #hal<er's announcement -uilds on the (emorandum of =nderstanding signed in .uly -y #hristopher "atten, then 1ritain's (inister for /verseas !evelopment, and his counterpart in 1razil. #hal<er was addressing 1ritish and 1razilian delegates at the second review conference of the (araca Rainforest "ro8ect, a 1+Amonth study led -y 1ritain on the island of (araca on the river Amazon. .ames %huttleworth, the head of the 0ydrological "rocesses !ivision of 1ritain's ;nstitute of 0ydrology, is awaiting approval to 8oin forces with 1razil's national Amazon research institute and its space agency on A1RA#/%. 0e claims that 'there is a very su-stantial need to provide a more accurate and credi-le prediction of the climatic conseEuences of largeAscale deforestation'. 0e claims that e9isting predictions rely on mismeasurements of the amounts of solar radiation that forests a-sor- and were also inaccurate regarding the amounts a-sor-ed -y pastures left -ehind -y deforestation. Also, %huttleworth suspects that climatologists have failed in the past to ta<e account of the effects that cloud cover has on these phenomena. 0e sees an urgent need to correct these mista<es, claiming that 'it is impossi-le to ma<e sensi-le planning decisions unless we have accurate numerical data'. The pac<age of research pro8ects includes studies on sustaina-le forest management and the Amazon's genetic resources. 7hillean "rance, the director of the Royal 1otanic 7ardens at >ew in :ondon, will direct 1ritain's involvement in the pro8ects on genetic resources. They will include applied studies to determine the scope for selling new products from the rainforests, -oth in 1razil and a-road. The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

"rance -elieves that -y mar<eting more products from the forest, the researchers can help to demonstrate the commercial worth of a thriving forest. Among the companies that support this approach are the 1ody %hop and the Food 1usiness, a 1ritish company that wants to develop ice cream flavoured with an ingredient discovered -y "rance in the fruit of a tropical tree species, the Assai palm. Another <ey feature of the pro8ect is a study of the genetic resources of a +2Ahectare reserve at #a9iuana near the mouth of the Amazon. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, +3 $ovem-er 1))1, *ol.1+& $o.14)4 "age 12

Amazon people get forest home at last


1razil has finally agreed to allow the Banomami, the largest ;ndian group in the Amazon rainforest, to have partial control of their traditional lands. The decision is li<ely to -e the first phase in an economic zoning programme for the entire forest, preserving some parts -ut sacrificing others. "resident Fernando #ollor de (ello's decree, made earlier this month, gives the Banomami an area of forest larger than %cotland. ;t came after apparent lastAditch efforts -y the 1razilian military to prevent it, -ecause the Banomami lands, in the north of the Amazon -asin, include the -order with *enezuela, a militarily sensitive area. #ollor's pu-lic hesitation -rought threats to -oycott the arth %ummit in Rio de .aneiro ne9t year from groups defending -oth tri-al peoples and the rainforest, such as %urvival ;nternational. The =$ secretaryAgeneral "erez de #uellar phoned #ollor to e9press his concern. The Banomami will win control of their land only after the government has formally sta<ed out the forest, at a cost of some D& million. ven then, mineral rights will remain with the government. The ne9t step in -ringing order to the Amazon -asin will come with the completion of negotiations -etween 1razil, the 6orld 1an< and the uropean #ommunity to provide aid for 'ecologicalAeconomic zoning' of the forest, the world's largest surviving tropical rainforest. The zoning process will reEuire scientists and economists to divide the forest -etween those areas that should -e preserved as national par<sH those areas to -e set aside for traditional ;ndian farming and hunting or for ru--er tappers and others who use the forest without destroying itH and those areas where roads, mines, dams and other ecologically destructive development can ta<e place. Moning has emerged as a central feature of the "ilot "ro8ect for 1razil, an initiative to help preserve the Amazon rainforest proposed -y the 74 group of

,? industrial nations 1' months ago. The pro8ect is still the su-8ect of intense negotiation. :ast month, #ollor complained at the slowness of the rich nations in putting their money A he wants D1.? -illion A where their mouths are. 1ut 7ermany, the original proposers of the pro8ect, responded with a commitment to pay an eventual D123 million. %cience $ew %cientist, 12 .uly 1))2, *ol.1,4 $o.1)'? "age 1) larger scale, while differences in drainage typically affect smaller areas. 6hatever the cause, the e9istence of many distinctive forest -iotopes adds to the difficulty of preserving rainforest diversity. Q;f we want to conserve, we should ma<e sure samples of all the -iotopes are included in the conservation programme,Q says Tuomisto. The researchers are cautious a-out generalising their results to the whole of the Amazon rainforest, as their study covered only a-out 13 per cent of the Amazon -asin. 1ut they are confident that the forest as a whole contains many more -iotopes than have -een identified so far. Tuomisto says that a concerted effort is now needed to document the -iotopes present across the entire Amazon -asin. 6ithout help, she says, this tas< would ta<e her small group Qclose to one hundred years.Q This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 34 !ecem-er 1))1, *ol.1+& $o.14)' "age 12

!iversity is a dou-leAedged sword . FF 0 #0T


#/:/7;%T% may have missed out on a whole level of -iological diversity in the Amazon rainforest, warn researchers in Finland and "eru. This can only complicate the tas< of conserving tropical -iodiversity. (any previous studies have found huge local diversity in patches of Amazon forest. /ne survey counted some ,33 tree species in a single hectare. 1ut researchers have assumed that -iodiversity does not vary strongly on a local scale, from hectare to hectare. $ow 0anna Tuomisto and her colleagues at the =niversity of Tur<u in Finland, wor<ing with researchers at the $ational ;nstitute of $atural Resources in :ima, "eru, say that there are more than a hundred distinct vegetation types in the halfAmillion sEuare <ilometres of the Amazon lowlands in "eru. ach of these Q-iotopesQ may contain a different range of plant species, the researchers say. Tuomisto's group analysed images ta<en -y the :andsat series of satellites. These showed distinct patterns which the researchers too< to indicate variation in the structure of the forest and the species present. From the satellite images, they were a-le to identify more than a hundred different forest -iotopes. They then went out into the forest to e9amine some of these sites, and confirmed that the patterns recorded on the satellite images corresponded to differences in vegetation. For e9ample, some sites had a complete forest canopy, while in others the canopy was -ro<en, and shorter species such as -am-oo were a-undant. Q6e have actually visited a-out twenty -iotopes and <now that they are pretty stri<ingly different,Q says Tuomisto. Finally, the researchers counted the num-ers of species of fern and a group of tropical flowering plants called the (elastomataceae along transects through several distinctive -iotopes. These surveys revealed that the -iological diversity of the -iotopes varied greatly. At one site, for instance, a ,33Ametre transect contained some si9ty species, whereas a similar transect in the least diverse -iotope contained fewer than half this num-er F%cience, vol &?), p ?+G. Tuomisto -elieves that the patterns o-served on the satellite images are caused -y differences in soil type. *ariations in climate, she says, operate on a much

Amazon rescue plan stirs political row FR ! " AR#


*; $$A The first international effort to save the Amazon rainforest could -e approved this wee<end when the 6orld 1an< unveils a dramatically revised version of the 74 "ilot "rogramme for the #onservation of the 1razilian Amazon Rainforest. 1ut the new plan may enrage -oth the 1razilian government, which would surrender control of the pro8ect's purse strings, and environmentalists, who will see some of their own proposals dropped in favour of a large eucalyptus plantation in the #ara8as region. The pilot programme was agreed -y the 74 clu- of 6estern nations in 0ouston in 1))3, at the height of international concern a-out the destruction of the Amazon forests. The idea was not discussed with the 1razilians -eforehand, and soon drew accusations that the 6estern nations were trying to 'internationalise' the Amazon. 1ut "resident Fernando #ollor de (ello nonetheless -egan tal<s with the uropean #ommunity and the 6orld 1an<. According to one source: 'The 1razilians treated it as a -lan< cheEue. They chuc<ed everything into the pot including a huge list of dustAcovered proposals from nonA governmental organisations.' The -ill for the 1razilians' proposals came to D1.? -illion. At the 74 %ummit in :ondon in .uly this year, heads of state agreed to spend up to D&23 million over three years. 1ut they insisted on revising the programme. The new programme was drawn up -y a technical mission to 1razil from the uropean #ommunity and the 6orld 1an<. Their report is -eing presented to a meeting of donors and 1razil in 7eneva on %aturday.

,?

,4 ;t proposes setting up a rainforest trust fund as part of the -an<'s new 7lo-al nvironment Facility. The proposal emphasises that the donor nations should control spending and that the 6orld 1an< would have to approve all pro8ects. The money will pay for scientists to divide the Amazon into zones, with reserves set aside for nature protection, reserves for ru--er tappers and ;ndian groups and zones where commercial activity such as road -uilding, mining and forestry are allowed. The funds will also help to pay for environmental monitoring and research into the mar<eting of forest products. /ne important -one of contention is the revival of a plan to plant up to +33 333 hectares of eucalyptus trees in the 7rande #ala8as mining region. The scheme was intended to provide wood pulp for the cellulose industry and tim-er for charcoal production in an area where huge tracts of natural forests have -een cut down to provide charcoal for the region's iron smelters. The 1razilians claimed that the plantation would provide a new source of tim-er and so protect natural forest. 1ut earlier this year Friends of the arth ;nternational warned that it would have drastic ecological conseEuences. uropean governments persuaded 1razil to withdraw the #ala8as proposal -efore the :ondon summit. 1ut now it has returned A perhaps -ecause it will tempt industry to contri-ute to this part of the programme. Features $ew %cientist, 1, (arch 1))&, *ol.1++ $o.1'1& "age &2 if things do not change A ;TT/ has -ecome an evangelist for sustaina-le logging. ;t has set itself the target of ma<ing responsi-le, 'scientific' logging the norm throughout the tropical world -y the year &,333. (any environmentalists remain profoundly sceptical. They point to the ;TT/'s a-ysmal trac< record on policing the tim-er industry and the fact that less than 3.1 per cent of the world's rainforest is at present under any form of sustaina-le management. veryone agrees that without enormous political will this situation is unli<ely to change. 1ut even if the will is there, how can we -e sure that any future logging practices du--ed 'sustaina-le' -y the tim-er industry really do allow rainforest the chance to regenerate@ =nderlying this Euestion are some thorny scientific pro-lems. .ust how resilient are rainforests to smallAscale distur-ances@ 0ow fast can they repair gaps in their canopies@ And what, if any, is the ecological value of the 'secondary' vegetation which often emerges after a rainforest has -een logged@ Five years ago we set a-out finding some answers in 1orneo, home to one of the world's richest rainforests. 6e 8oined a team of scientists from 1ritain and %outheast Asia at the Royal %ociety's field station in !anum *alley, %a-ah, one of the most heavily logged regions of (alaysia. /ur mission was to study the impact on a small area of rainforest A its vegetation, microclimate, wildlife, insects and so on A of creating holes in its canopy. Recently we met other -otanists and ecologists at the Royal %ociety in :ondon to discuss in detail what we have found so far. Tropical rainforest is commonly perceived as one of the most ancient and sta-le ecosystems on arth. Bet even virgin, or primary, rainforest suffers much natural distur-ance -y, for e9ample, hurricanes, landslides and even droughts. !uring the past decade, for e9ample, tracts of primary rainforest in 1orneo and 1razil were destroyed -y fires -rought on -y drought. The great fire of 1orneo in 1)'+ destroyed some ,3,333 sEuare <ilometres of forest, a vast area given that the present rate of logging there is a-out 4,333 sEuare <ilometres per year. (uch more common, though, is distur-ance of a less drastic <ind A the tiny gaps that appear in a forest canopy whenever a tree dies and falls over. Anyone who has camped overnight in a rainforest will have -een startled from time to time -y a near-y tree crashing to the ground. Far from destroying the forest, such natural distur-ances provide opportunities for regeneration. An entire rainforest can turn over in not much more than 1&3 years. ;f rainforests can recover from natural distur-ances, why not from logging@ "resuma-ly the odds on recovery will -e shortest when the gaps are small. 1ut e9actly how small is small, and to what e9tent does the size of a gap influence the speed and Euality of forest regeneration@ These Euestions lie at the core of a -ranch of -iology <nown as forest dynamics, and they underlie much of our wor< in %a-ah.

:ogging rainforests the natural way@: Those who wish to e9ploit rainforests usually destroy them. /ne answer may -e to e9tract tim-er in a way that mimics the natural destruction which is inherent in a rainforest's life cycle $;#> 1R/6$ and (A:#/:( "R %%
This year some 133,333 sEuare <ilometres of pristine rainforest A an area roughly the size of ;celand A will -e -urnt to the ground to produce farmland. A further 23,333 sEuare <ilometres will -e invaded -y logging companies intent on e9tracting tim-er of high commercial value. $o-ody dou-ts that the -urning will cause irreversi-le destruction, of -oth trees and wildlife. 1ut what of the logging@ The conventional view of tim-er e9traction is that it is the <iss of death for a rainforest. :oggers move in with their roads and heavy tractors, remove the most valua-le tim-er and then a-andon the forest, depleted, to slashA andA-urn farmers. 1ut does it have to -e li<e this@ The ;nternational Tropical Tim-er /rganisation, a trade association set up -y the ,4 nations of the world that either produce or import tropical tim-er, thin<s not. !riven -y pu-lic concern and necessity A many of the world's rainforests will -e e9hausted within two decades The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

,' Forest dynamics is -y no means a new su-8ect. For several decades, -iologists have studied forest regeneration in the natural gaps formed -y the everyday collapse of ageing trees. /ne factor more than any other seems to determine the pattern of regrowth: the amount of sunlight the gap allows in through the forest's evergreen canopy. 6hen it is completely intact, the canopy A which can -e up to +3 metres deep A a-sor-s most of the sunlight, leaving the forest floor cool, moist and dar<. %o intense is the shade, in fact, that the -an<s of seedlings which cover the rainforest's floor find it hard to grow. (ost of these seedlings are of soAcalled clima9 species, trees such as the dipterocarps which predominate in primary rainforest in %outheast Asia and provide valua-le hardwood tim-er. Their seeds are produced almost continuously and germinate immediately. 1ut in the deep shade of the forest floor, most of the resulting seedlings remain suppressed for years, scarcely growing at all. The tiniest hole caused -y a -ranch falling may -e enough to trigger the growth of a clima9 seedling from the forest floor. Bet give such a seedling too much sunlight and it will soon wither. The ris< of overdosing on light is not the only pro-lem clima9 seedlings face in their struggle to reach maturity. They must also contend with stiff competition from another class of tropical plant: fastAgrowing trees with soft, lowAdensity wood, <nown as pioneers. /ne such adversary is -alsa, a pioneer species from #entral America which can grow at up to seven metres a year. =nli<e their clima9 counterparts, the seeds of pioneers can remain dormant in soil for years and usually germinate only after -eing activated -y sunlight or heat. Also in contrast to clima9 seedlings, pioneers thrive in -right light. %o in open sunny gaps, or following slashA andA-urn clearance of a forest, pioneer vegetation soon emerges and dominates. A gap produced -y the deaths of four or five adult trees allows at least &3 times as much sunlight to reach the forest floor A more than enough to stimulate the germination of pioneers. 7rouping tropical trees into lightAloving pioneers and shadeAadapted clima9 species is the starting point for understanding forest dynamics. 1ut this simple division conceals many comple9ities, not least the Euestion of how rainforests evolved, and continue to sustain, such an e9u-erance of plant life. A single hectare of "eruvian rainforest contains on average eight times as many species of tree as the whole of 1ritain. 0ow can so many species coe9ist without a large proportion -eing driven to e9tinction@ 6hy are there so many apparent winners in the competition for light, water and mineral nutrients@ Answering this puzzle holds the <ey to developing strategies for e9ploiting rainforests sustaina-ly. #ompeting theories a-ound. /ne hypothesis, championed -y the #osta Rican ecologist !an .anzen in the midA1)'3s, points to pressure from predators as the driving force -ehind rainforest diversity. ach time a her-ivore species evolves protection against the chemical or mechanical defences of a plant, there will -e evolutionary pressure on plants to evolve further ,' defences. ;t is this -iological arms race which, supposedly, ensures a constant turnover of new and more varied species of -oth plant and predator. The idea is sometimes called the Red Kueen hypothesis in honour of the passage in Alice Through the :oo<ing 7lass where the Eueen tells Alice: ';t ta<es all the running you can do to stay in the same place.' A second school of thought ascri-es the diversity of tropical ecosystems to the effects of natural distur-ances. The most e9treme theory of this <ind is the soAcalled refugia hypothesis, which points to the climatic turmoil of the "leistocene F-etween 1 and & million years agoG as the dominant source of distur-ance. As glaciation advanced over the northern continents during that period, it argues, rainfall in the tropics diminished, with the result that what were previously whole forests temporarily fractured into islands A or refuges A of forest separated -y arid areas. :ife within these refuges then rapidly diversifiedH when they later merged the resulting ha-itats were rich in species and have remained so ever since. That, at least, is the speculation. ;n principle diversity may also -e the product of less drastic distur-ances to rainforest ha-itat, such as damage caused -y landslides, earthEua<es, rivers switching course, or even the collapse of aged or diseased trees. This is the -asis of the soAcalled gap dynamics theory. The idea here is that the conditions prevailing in gaps of different sizes favour different species of tree. 0ence each clima9 species is uniEuely adapted to grow in a gap of one particular size. (oreover, -ecause gaps caused -y natural distur-ances must vary in size, many different species of tree are encouraged to regenerate. *ariety in gap size is the driving force -ehind -iological diversity in the rainforest A or so the hypothesis holds. Testing these theories has proved Euite a challenge for tropical ecologists. 6hat limited data there are seem to cast dou-t on the importance of predator pressure, -ut the theory still has its committed disciples. %imilarly, the evidence for the refugia hypothesis remains far from conclusive. ;ts critics point to the fact that many, if not most, rainforest species are distri-uted uniformly, rather than in clumps. (eanwhile, in the a-sence of any evidence at all, it has -een the gap dynamics theory that has appealed most to ecologists. /nly with our wor< in %a-ah has that theory finally -een put to the test. 6hat we did in %a-ah was to cut a series of precise holes in the canopy of the !anum *alley rainforest. These varied in size from 13 to 1233 metres sEuare, and during the following four years we carefully recorded the fate of each clima9 seedling growing on the e9posed forest floor -eneath the holes. (ost of the wor< was done with Tim 6hitmore, a rainforest ecologist from the =niversity of /9ford. As e9pected, many of the clima9 seedlings in the largest gaps were scorched -y strong sunlight and died within a few wee<s. /thers struggled on only to -e massacred -y shoot -orers and other insects at a later stage. The survivors of this onslaught appeared una-le to continue growing upwards, so the gaps soon filled with sprawling

,) -ushes. As we monitored the fates of clima9 seedlings, !on >ennedy and (i<e %waine of the =niversity of A-erdeen <ept ta-s on the pioneers. Although these germinated in gaps of many different sizes, only in the larger gaps A formed -y the removal of two or more canopy trees A was there enough sunlight for pioneer seedlings to survive more than a couple of years. The most surprising finding came from the smaller gaps. At the outset we had e9pected gaps of different sizes to favour different clima9 species, in line with the gap dynamics theory. Bet our results provided scant evidence of this. 6hat seemed to matter most was simply seedling height. ;nitially, each gap was populated -y a variety of seedling species, all of very different ages and sizes A the survivors of many years of suppression -y forest shade. 1ut in due course it was the seedlings that were tallest to start with A regardless of species A which went on to dominate the gap. The smaller seedlings, even if they were a-le to grow faster than their taller colleagues in -right light, were una-le to catch up -efore the ground -ecame shaded -y the e9panding canopy of the tall seedlings. The tallest seedlings were usually of species such as 0opea nervosa, which can grow slowly in deep shade for many years. The seedlings of species less well adapted to shade, such as "arashorea malaanonan, were younger and shorter. The gap dynamics theory overloo<s this type of variation in the seedling -an<, which may e9plain why our results appear at odds with its predictions. At the same time, our findings raised a new puzzle: why do clima9 species which can survive deep shade not drive to e9tinction those that need light to grow@ 6e thin< the reason lies not in the different sizes of natural gaps -ut in a completely different varia-le: how freEuently a rainforest canopy is opened up. ven the tiniest gap in the canopy su-stantially improves the survival prospects of seedlings that cannot grow in deep shade. %o in areas of forest which are especially prone to distur-ance, shadeAadapted seedlings will lose their competitive advantage over seedlings that cannot grow in shade. The spells -etween distur-ances are simply not long enough for them to gain a head start. The more freEuently the canopy is opened up, the more the two <inds of seedlings would approach competitive eEuality. ;n some circumstances, the initial ineEuality may even reverse itself, -ecause e9treme tolerance to shade must involve at least some physiological compromises. 7reenhouse studies in #osta Rica and %a-ah show that in sunny conditions shadeAadapted clima9 seedlings are generally outpaced -y seedlings that struggle to survive in deep shade. Ta<en together, our results sound a cautionary note for rainforest management. At present the vast ma8ority of logging operations around the world create large gaps in canopies. Figures from the Amazon and %outheast Asia indicate that as many as 43 per cent of trees in a forest may -e damaged or destroyed to e9tract only 13 per cent of them. To ma<e matters worse, -ulldozers and caterpillar tractors often crush the forest's -an<s of The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz clima9 seedlings. ven when logging is done selectively, careless forestry practice generally destroys at least half the canopy. /nly pioneer species are a-le to cope with the resulting -rightness, heat and low humidity. There are no easy solutions. =nless logging companies eliminate all unnecessary damage, they will have to reduce drastically the amount of tim-er they e9tract. ;f clima9 species are to -e given any chance of regenerating, loggers must open up no more than &2 per cent of the canopy during each cut. ven then, the -iological diversity of the forest will -e at ris<. To e9tract tim-er in a way that is -oth commercially and ecologically sustaina-le, logging companies must go a step further. They must try and mimic the natural distur-ances that help to sustain -iological diversity, and avoid patterns of activity that erode it. This means varying not only the sizes of the gaps they ma<e -ut also how often they distur- different parts of the forest. 1ut the news is not all -ad. "ioneer vegetation may -e of lower -iological diversity than primary rainforest, and its soft tim-er may -e of low commercial value, -ut its speedy growth in a logged rainforest can play a vital part in restoring the damp, cool conditions necessary for clima9 trees to reAesta-lish themselves. 6hat is more, according to research -y ;an !ouglas and his colleagues from the =niversity of (anchester, pioneer trees can also help to chec< the soil erosion that occurs when logging e9poses forest land. Following a commercial cut in %a-ah, the researchers found that the sediments in a stream draining the logged forest had increased 1'AfoldH -ut a year later, after pioneers had colonised the area, the sediments had fallen to less than four times the normal level. Research on the impact of logging on wildlife gives room for optimism, too. #ontrary to e9pectations, Andy .ohns and Fran< :am-ert, of the =niversity of A-erdeen, have found that few species of verte-rate are lost entirely when a rainforest is logged, though the local populations of some verte-rates plummet. ;n their study, large her-ivores such as elephants and deer positively thrived on pioneer vegetation. The creatures that fared least well were those with highly specific food needs. 6oodpec<ers and flycatchers, for e9ample, -ecame confined to whatever small poc<ets of untouched forest remained after logging. "rimates were also hard hit. The local orangAutans had few young for several years after the forest had -een logged. A similar story is emerging from the wor< of entomologists .eremy 0olloway of the $atural 0istory (useum and Ashley >ir<A%priggs of the $ational (useum of 6ales. /n the positive side, logging appears to leave relatively unscathed those insects such as dung and carrion -eetles that can e9ploit a wide range of food resources. 1ut the local populations of insects such as moths, which feed on highly specific rainforest plants, tend to crash. All these results, however, paint what is pro-a-ly an idealised picture. :ogging invaria-ly provides road access for hunters and migrant farmers who often

23 devastate the local wildlife. (oreover, our <nowledge of the intricate we- of -iological interactions that sustains a rainforest is still far from complete. A <ey unanswered Euestion is the e9tent to which longAterm fluctuations in the populations of pollinators, seed dispersers and her-ivores affect the composition of a logged rainforest. 6hat good does it do to preserve a forest's capacity to regenerate its trees if logging has driven away the animals that disperse their seed@ 6hat we do <now is that natural distur-ance is central to the life cycles of all rainforests, and that to get close to mimic<ing it, logging companies will have to reduce the size of the gaps they ma<e in canopies. Bet, as our pro8ect also reveals, size isn't everything: the success of the healing may also depend on the freEuency with which the wounds are inflicted. =niversity of #alifornia at !avis thin< the answer is yes. Their research shows that plants from shady ha-itats capture sunflec<s more efficiently than plants from sunny ha-itats. 6hen light hits dar<ened leaves there is a time lag, or induction phase, -efore it -oosts the rate of photosynthesis in the leaves. ;t seems that in rainforest plants, pulses of light A simulated sunflec<s A are 8ust as good at getting photosynthesis going as continuous light. 6hen photosynthesis is in full swing in a plant's leaves and the intensity of light suddenly falls, the rate of photosynthesis will -egin to decline e9ponentially. #hazdon and "earcy found that this decline occurs much more slowly in the leaves of rainforest understorey species than in lightAdemanding plants. Thus, the effects of sunflec<s outlast their duration, allowing car-on dio9ide to -e fi9ed in the dar<ness that follows a sunflec<. 1otanists are now investigating whether these results apply to a range of other understorey plants, while -iochemists try to uncover the molecular processes that allow rainforest plants to continue to fi9 car-on dio9ide long after the sunflec< has passed. %unflec<s, and the varying a-ilities of different species of plants to capture them, may also e9plain why some clima9 seedlings survive longer than others under the canopy, and so get a head start on competitors when a gap forms. ;n large gaps the very strategies that ena-le clima9 seedlings to survive in deep shade turn out to -e their downfall. Their shadeAadapted leaves do not have the -iochemical machinery needed to harness what can -e as much as a hundredAfold increase in light energy. As a result they soon -ecome overloaded or 'photodamaged', a condition which usually leads to leaf -leaching and, eventually, death. "lants which live on the forest floor are not only shaded from light, -ut also from e9tremes of desiccation, temperature and wind. /ur remaining pro-lem is to wor< out e9actly what such changes mean for the seedlings of clima9 species such as the dipterocarps. /nly with such information in hand will we -e a-le to understand properly the role of gaps in seedling regeneration, and design logging regimes compati-le with the sustaina-le use of tropical forests. Figures: !anum *alley, (alaysia Features $ew %cientist, 3+ .une 1))2, *ol.1,? $o.1)'3 "age &&

Rainforest plants that grow in the dar<


0ow do tree seedlings survive the dense shade of a tropical rainforest@ For years -otanists struggled with this Euestion helped only -y clues from la-oratory e9periments on plant species that are often illAeEuipped to withstand shade. These days -otanists go to the forest floor to do their e9perimentsH only there can they investigate the crucial role of sunflec<s. /nly a-out & per cent of the light falling on a rainforest canopy reaches the forest floor. /f this, a-out threeA Euarters is in the form of sunflec<s A unfiltered sunlight that has not passed through leaves higher up in the canopy. 6hen these flec<s hit the forest floor, leaves may -e -rightly lit for anything from a few seconds to more than half an hour. 1otanists are studying how rainforest leaves respond to sunflec<s -y measuring the rates at which they fi9 car-on dio9ide. 0ow much car-on dio9ide a plant consumes is governed -y the intensity of the light falling on its leaves. ;n dar<ness, there is no car-on fi9ation, only respiration, and in this state plants are net producers, rather than a-sor-ers, of car-on dio9ide. As the intensity of light increases there comes a point A the 'compensation' point A when the amount of car-on dio9ide released -y respiration eEuals that fi9ed -y photosynthesis. ;n the 'understorey' of the rainforest, plants have low compensation points: they minimise the amount of car-on dio9ide lost through respiration and ma9imise the amount of car-on dio9ide they can a-sorin shady conditions. 1otanists have long <nown that the dar< green leaves of rainforest plants are unusually efficient at capturing sunlight. $ot only have the leaves adapted their shapes to optimise light capture, -ut the molecular machinery with which they carry out photosynthesis is also highly responsive. (ore recently, researchers have -een trying to answer another Euestion: have rainforest plants evolved to -e more responsive to sunflec<s than to continuous radiation@ Ro-in #hazdon and Ro-ert "earcy of the

0ell's highway: "lans to turn one of %outh America's ma8or waterways into a grand shipping canal have provo<ed a storm of environmental protests RA"0A : 0 AT0

23

21 F:B;$7 a-ove the River "araguay from its source inside 1razil and watching it sna<e southwards through vast e9panses of undistur-ed primary forest and wetland, 8oin the mighty River "arana and flow defiantly onwards through Argentina to the huge :a "lata estuary on the %outh Atlantic /cean, it's hard to -elieve that such a formida-le waterway could -e threatened -y a single pro8ect. 1ut then the 0idrovia "ro8ect is no ordinary pro8ect Fsee (apG. ;t is, say conservationists, the first and most grandiose part of the world's largest and most am-itious plan to reA engineer the natural infrastructure of a continent. They refer to the pro8ect as Q0ell's highwayQ, and say details a-out it are so hard to come -y that few people in %outh America <now anything of its scale, or of its implications for the longAterm welfare of the region's culture and environment. The 0idrovia "ro8ect is destined to turn the entire length of the "araguayA "arana river system, all +,33 <ilometres of it, into a superAefficient shipping lane. (ost of the meandering route is currently impassa-le, unsafe for shipping or simply forces commercial traffic to crawl along at a snail's pace. 1ut dredging, damming and diversion wor<s are designed to create a naviga-le canal, up to 23 metres wide and , metres deep, that will allow tan<ers carrying 23,333 tonnes of cargo to ride smoothly and swiftly -etween the %outh Atlantic /cean and the town of ceres in the 1razilian interior. %o alarmed at the prospect are conservationists, -oth inside and outside %outh America, that they have forged an international alliance Qin defence of the land and people of the "araguayA"aranaA:a "lata 1asinQ. (ore than '3 campaign groups, scientific institutes and nonA governmental organisations, -rought together as the 0idrovia #oordinating #ommittee -y local agencies in %outh America and -y the ;nternational Rivers $etwor< F;R$G in %an Francisco, say they are Qdeeply concerned with the li<ely social and environmental impacts of the 0idrovia "ro8ectQ. Timely cele-ration $e9t wee<, on 2 .une, the day the =nited $ations nvironment "rogramme sets aside every year as 6orld nvironment !ay, they will again call on the five governments of :a "lata 1asin A Argentina, 1olivia, 1razil, "araguay and =ruguay A to stop wor< on the pro8ect until studies of its impact on the region's ecology, environment and way of life have -een completed. At a press conference, they will produce independent analyses of the scheme that challenge official optimism a-out its economic via-ility. They will also dismiss as Qgreen tal<Q the assurances from politicians that safeguarding the region's environment is a priority. Few civil engineering schemes arouse such universal ire, -ut then few match the scale of the 0idrovia "ro8ect, notes pro8ect's international navigation rights, on which the success of the development depends. Renewed foreign interest in the continent's natural resources seems to have -een an important factor in -ringing them together at last. "olitical leaders recognise that the pro8ect will open up the heart of %outh America to private investors <een to e9ploit the continent's rich reserves of gypsum, iron ore and tim-er, and they welcome such investment. =ruguay's president, :uis Al-erto :acalle, descri-es the 0idrovia "ro8ect as the <ey to the region's economic integration and growth. ;n Fe-ruary, at the ratification ceremony in (ontevideo, he called the pro8ect Qa new highwater mar< in the interrelation -etween political, diplomatic and private interestsQ. 6hat worries conservationists is the speed at which the 6etlands for the Americas, an environmental group -ased in 1uenos Aires. 6hat's more, suggests 6A, Qonce 0idrovia -ecomes operational the pro8ect will escalate and new large scale engineering wor<s will -e proposed ... to facilitate navigation, and damming and, interconnection with rivers of the Amazon, =ruguay and other -asinsQ. The organisation identifies proposals to develop si9 other river -asins in %outh America, which together would create a waterways networ< lin<ing the /rinoco in the north to :a "lata estuary. %ince 1)'4, the five governments of :a "lata 1asin have -ac<ed the 0idrovia "ro8ect forming the ;ntergovernmental #ommittee on 0idrovia F#;0G in 1)') to coordinate their activities. They see the scheme transforming their impoverished interiors, and raising the living standards of all their populations, totalling more than &33 million people spread over 1& million sEuare <ilometres of territory. !espite this apparent consensus, the five countries too< until Fe-ruary this year to -ury their political differences and reach a formal agreement covering the pro8ect is -eing implemented, without full consultation and evaluation. Results from environmental impact studies, which -egan in (arch, are not e9pected until %eptem-er ne9t year, and yet construction wor< on the pro8ect has already started, they say. (ost nota-ly, local "araguayan contractors completed a new port last year and, says the ;R$, in .anuary this year a 1elgian dredging company started wor< on a D433 million contract to widen and deepen '33 <ilometres of the lower reaches of the River "arana in Argentina. The company, .an de $ul of 0ofstade, is contri-uting D+33 million towards the cost, which it aims to recoup -y charging tolls when the 8o- is finished. ;n response, conservationists have loo<ed for help from the ;nterAAmerican !evelopment 1an< in 6ashington !#. The 1!1, which has -een approached -y the five governments of :a "lata 1asin to finance the 0idrovia "ro8ect, has said that it will not contri-ute funds towards construction wor< until it is satisfied that the pro8ect represents a worthwhile investment A socially, environmentally and economically. %o far, the 1!1 has donated D4.2 million towards the estimated D13.2 million cost of evaluating the entire pro8ect, including D+ million for the environmental impact studies that -egan in (arch. The rest of the money is coming from the five countries themselves, with the =nited $ations

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

2& !evelopment "rogramme chipping in around D233,333. Furthermore, the -an< says that it does not e9pect any construction wor< to start -efore the end of 1))4 at the earliest. $evertheless, the -an< feels powerless to intervene over the wor<s that conservationists insist are -eing underta<en too hastily A the port and the dredging wor<s in the River "arana. These 8o-s, it turns out, are not part of the official scheme, says (ar<o hrlich, an environmental scientist in the -an<'s team on the 0idrovia "ro8ect. %trictly spea<ing, Qno wor< has -egunQ on the pro8ect, he says. The port and dredging wor<s are part of a private waterway development, for which the right -an< of the river system is reservedH the 0idrovia "ro8ect is confined to the left -an<. hrlich admits that this dual arrangement Qdoes not ma<e much senseQ. 7lenn %withes, ;R$'s :atin American campaigns director, is eEually dismissive of the arrangement. QThis is a matter of semantics,Q he says. Q(y 0idrovia is not your 0idrovia, and their 0idrovia is the one that doesn't hurt the environment and only helps everyone.Q The conservationists' definition is unam-iguous, he adds: QFor us, 0idrovia is the sum total of wor<s programmed... this includes port improvements, dredging in the lower -asin Ffor which there are a-solutely no studiesG, and everything else.Q "rivate funding will -e part and parcel of the 0idrovia "ro8ect whether or not the 1!1 -ecomes involved, says %withes, -ecause the five governments do not have the money to do the 8o- themselves. (uch of the controversy and disagreement concern the pro8ect's economic -enefits. (ost of the "araguayA"arana waterway is a wild and natural sna<eli<e river, winding its way -etween marshy ecosystems and dense palm forest. :arge islands often divide its course, and thic< green mats of floating vegetation hug its -an<s, All this ma<es 8ourneys on the waterway a sluggish struggle for the vast commercial -arges, some as large as two foot-all pitches, on which the region depends for trade. Freight savings For Ramon #a-rera, director of the 0idrovia "ro8ect in "araguay, the river system is a wasted resource. :andloc<ed "araguay uses the waterway to transport around twoAthirds of the country's e9ports, says, and he e9pects a more naviga-le canal to reduce freight costs -y as much as ?3 per cent. #a-rera's optimism is founded on an economic evaluation of the 0idrovia "ro8ect -y ;nternave, a 1razilian firm -ased in %ao "aulo. 1ut the report, commissioned -y the 1razilian government, has faced some harsh criticism since its pu-lication in 1))&. Research a year later -y 6etlands for the Americas damned the ;nternave report for Qnumerous calculation errors ... the simplistic assumptions for calculating -enefits and the omission of significant environmental costsQ. These conclusions were later endorsed -y the ;!1, says hrlich, and persuaded the -an< to commission its own evaluation studies, which -egan in (arch. Taylor ngineering, a #anadian firm of environmental scientists, is conducting the first phase of the research for the ;!1. The studies should help to esta-lish the cost of the 0idrovia "ro8ect, estimates of which vary widely. 1ac< in Fe-ruary, at the pro8ect's ratification ceremony, one delegate announced: Q6ith D+3 million we can improve nearly +,333 <ilometres of 0idrovia.Q The delegate was .an van 0oogstraten, president of the "ermanent Transport #ommission of :a "lata 1asin, which advises the #;0. 1y contrast, the 6orld 6ildlife Fund forecasts cost of -etween D1.+ -illion and D+ -illion. ;n its report on the 0idrovia "ro8ect 6ho pays the -ill, pu-lished last year, the 66F -ased its calculations on the Argentinean government's -udget of D433 million for dredging '33 <ilometres of the lower reaches of the River "araguay. For conservationists, the single most important area threatened -y the pro8ect is the "antanal, one of the world's largest wetlands and -iodiversity hotspots, through which around 1,+33 <ilometres of the River "araguay flows. #overing -etween 1,3,333 and &33,333 sEuare <ilometres of northern "araguay and western 1razil, the wetland is home to ?2' species of -irds including rare toucans, macaws, <ingfishers and haw<s, more than 1,133 species of -utterflies and ,33 species of fish including the threatened %uru-i "intado. ;t is also home to 1+ endangered species of mammals including the marsh deer, the giant otter, the 8aguar and the giant anteater. According to the 1))+ report -y 6etlands for the Americas, the 0idrovia "ro8ect threatens to disrupt the region's seasonal variations in the levels of water and sediment on which the ecology depends. ;t could also alter the hydrology of the river -asin. The "antanal acts as an enormous sponge, holding water in the rainy season and releasing it gradually throughout the year. This helps to prevent flooding of the lower reaches of the river system where &2 million people live. %uch claims are alarmist, says #a-rera. QAll governments are concerned ... if any engineering wor<s cause damage to the environment then they will stop, the wor<s,Q he insists. 1ut #a-rera is confident that the environmental impact studies will show that there is little wrong with the plans. QThe wor< in the "antanal will -e li<e a needle to an elephant A it will not feel anything.Q And as far as the people living along the river are concerned, #a-rera e9pects the pro8ect to -ring changes for the -etter. 0e says that the north of the "araguay river is underdeveloped economically: Q0idrovia will increase the development of this area with the e9tra passing of ships.Q The 66F is less optimistic. At a wor<shop in 1razilia last $ovem-er on the potential impact of the 0idrovia "ro8ect, the fund concluded the QsocioAeconomic effects

2&

2+ of the pro8ect would -e irreversi-le, traditional <nowledge and way of lifeQ. destroying flummeryQ. ;t is Qfacts, not speciesQ that are in danger, he says. ;t would -e nice to -e a-le to counter such scepticism with simple factual statements along the lines: Q;n 1)),, 1.+ per cent of the planet's species disappearedQH or Qthe Amazon -asin is losing + per cent of its -eetles each year.Q ;ndeed, it would -e helpful to -e a-le to refer %imon and li<eAminded sceptics to a 1ig 1oo< of %pecies, accessi-le on the ;nternet and revised each year -y an 9tinction #ommittee. 1ut the reality is very different. There isn't a 1ig 1oo< of %pecies. 6e don't even <now how many species it would contain. There are a-out a million named species, and estimates of the num-er still unnamed range from a few million to a hundred million. As a result, arguments a-out the rate of e9tinctions A how many species on average are dying out per year A have to -e indirect, and therefore contentious. Bet this alone does not ma<e the sceptics right when they dismiss fears a-out contemporary e9tinctions, or relieve humanity of its responsi-ilities. 6hat it does mean is that scientists must ma<e the effort to e9plain their evidence for high e9tinction rates. There are two <ey pro-lems to -e tac<led. The first is how to ma<e sense of incomplete sets of wildlife data and estimate general trends in e9tinction rates from a limited num-er of <nown, and mostly local, trends in species populations. 6e <now more a-out -irds and other Qhighly visi-leQ animal groups, for e9ample, than inconspicuous marine inverte-rates. The second pro-lem is in answering the Euestion: how do contemporary trends in e9tinction rates compare with those that can -e estimated from the fossil record@ Are they worse, or nothing unusual@ (y colleagues and ; are loo<ing at new approaches to -oth these pro-lems. %o far our results have produced little comfort for those who would li<e to -elieve that all is well. 6e -elieve that over the past few thousand years species have -een -ecoming e9tinct at rates up to 1,333 times greater than those deduced from the fossil record. /ur evidence is -ased on e9tinction trends in a variety of places, -ut especially those in regions which have only recently -een occupied -y humans. .ust as in a detective story, in which it is easier to solve a recent crime than an old one -ecause the clues are thic<er on the ground, recent e9tinction trends are more accessi-le. 0umans have lived in Africa for nearly half a million years, and in the Americas for more than ten thousand years. 1ut it was not until the last couple of thousand years that we reached remote islands li<e 0awaii Fas the islanders prefer it to -e speltG. :et's start at 1ar-ers "oint on /ahu, west of 0onolulu, which ; recently visited with 1o- "yle from the near-y 1ishop (useum in 0onolulu. =nli<e most of this volcanic island, the point is a raised coral reef. ;t was hard going and we had to pic< our way carefully. The surface was pitted with deep holes and crac<s, much as a su-merged reef would -e. #enturies -efore the "olynesians arrived in their outrigger canoes,

/ne of the most vulnera-le groups, says the 6A report, is the #hamacoco ;ndians, who live within the remote southern tip of the "antanal in northern "araguay. Their villages can -e reached only -y -oat or plane, and yet they are increasingly -ecoming targets for e9ternal development, such as logging and largeAscale cattle ranching, which is edging its way nearer to their communities. /ne such opportunist is Felipe #astro, a %panish rancher, who arrived in the area last year with plans to organise agricultural, livestoc< and logging pro8ects. Q6hen you have lots of land, chopping down trees will not affect the environment,Q he suggests. /ne #hamacoco community at "uerto speranza has em-raced #astro's promise of economic development, and wor< hard felling trees with hand a9esH two others near-y, at "uerto !iana and 1, de (ayo, have not. 6hile claims and counterclaims on the impact of the 0idrovia "ro8ect rage, detailed information a-out the scheme has -ecome notoriously difficult to o-tain. ven #a-rera has -een <nown to wave aside a reEuest to see detailed plans of the pro8ect with the e9cuse that his only copies are with someone else. This month, "araguayan president .uan #arlos 6asmosy is due to meet officials from the ;!1 and the 6orld 1an< in 6ashington !# in an effort to raise funds for the 0idrovia "ro8ect. $ow is the time, say conservationists, for greater openness a-out a scheme that so few people in %outh America <now anything at all a-out. Figures: 6aterways networ<s in %outh America Features $ew %cientist, 3' April 1))2, *ol.1,? $o.1)4& "age +1

%eeds of our own destruction: arth is e9periencing a mass e9tinction of species on a par with the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, -ut this time asteroids and comets have nothing to do with it %T=ART ";((
:A%T .uly, as fragments of #omet %hoema<erA:evy ) slammed into .upiter, a newspaper cartoon showed worried .ovian dinosaurs loo<ing at the s<y and saying Q$ot againCQ. $o, dinosaurs have not -een discovered on .upiter. The cartoon simply reminded us that on several occasions during arth's geological history large proportions of its species have -ecome e9tinct, perhaps due to the impact of comets and asteroids. cologists such as myself -elieve that the arth is once again e9periencing a mass e9tinction A only this time we are pointing the finger of -lame at our own species. %ceptics in economic and political circles disagree, some vehemently. ;n the words of .ulian %imon, professor of -usiness administration at the =niversity of (aryland, estimates of high e9tinction rates are so much Qstatistical The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

2, -irds were -eing trapped in these holes. "yle told me to put my hand into the -ottom of a waterAfilled hole. From the muc<, ; recovered a dozen -ones. All were from species no longer found here. %ome were from sea-irds that now only nest on remote, uninha-ited islands elsewhere in the "acific. /thers were from an e9tinct flightless goose that we <now only from R/ahu. Across the 0awaiian islands, ornithologists 0elen .ames and %torrs /lson from the %mithsonian ;nstitution in 6ashington !# have found -ones from ,+ species that -ecame e9tinct soon after the "olynesians arrived in around A! ,33. These settlers ate the large -ird species and introduced pigs and rats, which would have made easy wor< of native -irds' eggs. 1ut these ,+ <nown losses are only part of the story. 1ird -ones are fragile and easily destroyed, so the -one collectors are li<ely to have missed many species. And the same is li<ely to -e true for e9tinctions on other remote islands: the <nown fossil or -one record will -e incomplete. (ichael (oulton, an ecologist at the =niversity of Florida, 7ainsville, and ; have come up with a way round this pro-lem. ;magine a list of all the species that lived on an island -efore their first contact with humans. Then create a second column -y placing a tic< against each species for which we have -ones, and a third column -y placing tic<s against those species that survived contact to -e collected or seen in the two centuries naturalists have e9plored the islands. :et's call these last animals the Qs<insQ Fsome of these Qs<insQ are -y now e9tinct tooH -ut more of this laterG. There are four classes of species on our list: those for which we have -ones -ut no s<ins, s<ins -ut no -ones, -oth -ones and s<ins, and neither s<ins nor -ones. %<ins and -ones This last class is purely speculative -ut we can estimate the num-er of species it should contain. /f all the species that have left -ones, we <now the ratio of the num-er for which we have s<ins to the num-er for which we do not have s<ins. For the species that have not left -ones, the ratio of those that have left s<ins to those that have not left s<ins should -e the same. %uppose that on an island there were 12 species <nown from -oth -ones and s<ins and ) found only as -ones. The 12AtoA) ratio should also -e the ratio of species <nown only as s<ins to the un<nown num-er of missing species. ;f there are % Qs<insAonlyQ species, there must have -een + missing species. Applying this argument to the 0awaiian islands, we find that there are a-out ,3 species of -irds missing from the record to add to the ,+ <nown e9tinctions since settlement -y humans. This -rings the -ody count to '+. ;nclude the 1' species that are <nown to have -ecome e9tinct after the islands were first colonised -y uropeans in the 1'th century, and the -ody count rises again, to 131. The newcomers cleared forests and introduced cattle and goats which, li<e the pigs, destroyed native plants A species as unprepared for large mammalian her-ivores 2, as the -irds were for rats. Today, our only records of the 1' species of -irds are the specimens collected -y 1)thA century naturalists. 6e <now the naturalists missed some species, so the real -ody count might -e even higher than 131. /n (olo<ai, for e9ample, early naturalists heard a rail, a small, secretive -ird of the undergrowth, -ut never collected it. $o evidence of rails has since -een found on (olo<ai. 6hat remains today@ A dozen species are so rare that there is little hope of saving them. *isit the island of (aui these days and you'll -e luc<y to see a po'o uli, or a nu<upu'u, a 1ishop's 'o'o, or a (au'i Ra<epa. ;f we can't find individuals of these species, then they are pro-a-ly so rare that they have trou-le finding mates. /n >aua'i, the last male 'o'o'a'a sang its haunting mating song for a couple of years without response, -efore he too fell silent. A further dozen species can -e found, -ut in num-ers so small that their future survival is uncertain. ;n all, only 11 species survive in num-ers that suggest a confident future. That's 11 species out of an estimated 1+? species F131 P 1& P 1& P 11G that once lived in these islands. #ounting the <nown -odies and estimating the missing ones using our Qs<ins and -onesQ method, (oulton and ; calculated that as the "olynesians colonised the "acific from $ew Mealand, north to 0awaii and east to aster ;sland, they e9terminated 233 to 1,333 species of -irds. (issing -irds And even this estimate may -e too low. At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of %cience in %an Francisco last spring, ; showed our figures to !avid %teadman, an ornithologist at $ew Bor<'s %tate (useum in Al-any, who has dug for -ones in this area. QBou're wrong,Q he told me flatly. QThere could -e &,333 species of rails alone that are missing from the "acific.Q %teadman should <now. 0e and other researchers have searched scores of islands in the "acific, large and small, some Euite easily accessi-le and others among the most remote patches of land on arth. ach has yielded at least one uniEue species of rail, either living or <nown from -ones. The larger volcanic islands held several such species. Although %teadman has not e9plored the caves of every one of the '33 islands in the "acific, if each held from one to several uniEue species of rail, then his estimate of &,333 would -e a-out right. $o more than a handful of these rails survive. /ne of the richest evolutionary radiations of verte-rates, "acific island rails, has almost completely disappeared. /ther "acific -ird species have gone too. All -ut the most remote islands had several species of pigeons and parrots. :arge, meaty and sometimes flightless, these -irds may have -een the perfect accompaniment to poi, a purplish paste made from taro root. Reporting his findings in the 8ournal %cience earlier this year, %teadman concluded that Qthe loss of -ird life in the tropical "acific may e9ceed &,333 speciesQ. ;n other words, in the time it too< humans to colonise the "acific, oneAfifth of the 13,333 or so -ird species that

22 were originally alive -ecame e9tinct. And that figure does not even include the smallest -ird species. This sounds li<e a dramatic loss. Bet some people might say: Q%o what, species have always -een going e9tinct.Q True, -ut these "acific e9tinctions are happening 133 to 1,333 times faster than would -e predicted from past e9tinction trends. 6e <now this -ecause it is possi-le to estimate a Q-ac<groundQ e9tinction rate A the average rate at which species have -een lost outside periods of mass e9tinction A and compare it with modern e9tinction rates. The starting point is usually the fossil record. Fossil species of hardA shelled inverte-rates, such as -ivalves and snails, typically last -etween a million and 13 million years, e9cluding those o-literated -y ma8or e9tinction events li<e the one that <illed off the dinosaurs. 1ut for -irds, things are more complicated. The fossil record is too incomplete to tell us how freEuently species -ecame e9tinct in the past. ;nstead, we must as< the converse Euestion: how Euic<ly do new -ird species form@ The answer should give us an upper limit for the rate of -ac<ground e9tinctions. From the (iocene until the human impacts of the last few thousand years, the rate of -ird speciation must have e9ceeded the e9tinction rate, for it produced an increasing num-er of species. /ver this period, -ac<ground e9tinctions must have -een less freEuent than speciations, so the intervals -etween -ac<ground e9tinctions must -e longer on average than the intervals -etween speciations. The good news is that we can measure speciation rates -y comparing the !$A seEuences of living -irdsH we don't need to rely solely on the fossil record. This is -ecause !$A -ehaves li<e a Qmolecular cloc<Q. !uring the process of evolution, the !$A of a species is continually accumulating random changes, particularly in places where changes do not have much influence on the survival of a species. Two species that differ in, say, 9 places should have split from a common ancestor half as recently as a pair of species that differ in twice as many places F&9G. 6e can cali-rate the cloc< -y lin<ing it to those few events there are in the sparse fossil record, such as the first appearance of modern -ird genera. This dating techniEue shows that closely related species of -irds A those in the same genus A typically diverged a few million years ago. /ther o-servations also suggest that -ird speciations ta<e place over millions of years, rather than tens or hundreds of thousands. Ta<e the case of the threeAtoed woodpec<er in urope. ;t is a conifer forest specialist that would have had a large and continuous range when the climate was colder and conifer forests covered most of southern urope. As the climate warmed, the conifer forests moved northwards and higher up the mountains. The rising tide of lowerAelevation deciduous forests stranded the -ird in its current fragmented range. These events too< place over tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Bet the resulting small differences in the isolated populations are not enough for ta9onomists to consider them separate species. Fast e9tinctions The much -igger differences that separate most species must ta<e much longer to emerge. That, in turn, means the -ac<ground e9tinction rate for -irds must -e relatively low, of the order of one event for every million or so years, assuming the speciation rate matches or e9ceeds the e9tinction rate. ;t also means that the "acific island e9tinctions are happening much faster than the -ac<ground rate. A-out 13,333 species of -ird survive today, worldwide. Across the "acific, we have lost roughly one species a year for a couple of thousand years. ;f these "acific e9tinctions were the only -irds we had lost A and that is far from the truth A then we would -e losing one species for every 13,333 species per year. ; call this estimate the Qconservative glo-al rate of e9tinctionQ. ;t is an underestimate -ecause it does not count species e9tinctions elsewhere. An alternative approach is to use regional e9tinction rates as indicators of glo-al e9tinction rates. 1efore the arrival of "olynesians, there were up to +,333 species in the "acific, of which fewer than 1,333 now survive. ;f these e9tinctions were typical of e9tinctions worldwide A and that's far from the truth, too A then we would -e losing one species in every +,333 species per year. This estimate is li<ely to -e higher than average -ecause the "acific is an e9tinction -lac< spot. Bet specific places may have even higher rates: the "acific island of 7uam, for e9ample, lost all ten of its land -irds in a decade prior to 1)'2 an e9tinction rate of one species for every 133 species per year. 7enerally, the glo-al rate of e9tinction will -e somewhere -etween the regional and conservative glo-al rates. $ormally, -ird species last -etween a million and 13 million years. ;n an imaginary e9periment, watch any species for this time and you are li<ely see it -ecome e9tinct. 6atch all ten thousand -ird species, and you should see an e9tinction every 133 to 1,333 years. Bet in the "acific alone, we see a-out one e9tinction per year. ;n other words, the conservative glo-al e9tinction rate is 133 to 1,333 times the -ac<ground rate. The regional rate of e9tinction is ten times higher still. (ay-e islands are 8ust unusually vulnera-le to e9tinctions. After all, it is not only -irds that have suffered on the "acific islandH the plants and inverte-rates have too. /ut of a total of a-out 1,333 <nown plant species, the 0awaiian islands have lost '2 since -otanists first arrived to descri-e them. Another 133 species are critically endangered and 13 of these are down to single individuals in the wild. The specimen ca-inets of the 1ishop (useum in 0onolulu contain hundreds of local varieties of e9tinct land snails eaten to e9tinction -y an alien predatory snail. The predator was deli-erately -rought to 0awaii in a futile attempt to control another introduced snail. !espite warnings from -iologists, the e9periment was repeated across the "acific

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

2? and in the %eychelles, with the same devastating results. ;n much of French "olynesia, every native snail has disappeared from the wild. Bet e9tinction -lac< spots are not always on islands. (ainland flora and fauna have suffered too. #onsider the fyn-os, an area in the southern tip of Africa that is astonishingly rich in plant species FQ%outh Africa's other -ush warQ, $ew %cientist, 1' Fe-ruary 1))&G. /f a total of a-out '233 <nown species, the fyn-os has lost +? in the last century and some ?1' are currently at ris< of e9tinction. #onsider, too, the plight of Australia's mammals. ighteen species out of a total of &'& have -ecome e9tinct in the past &33 years FQ(ystery of the missing mammalsQ, $ew %cientist, &) /cto-er 1)),G. =ntil recently, the world's amphi-ians fared -etter. /f a-out four thousand <nown species of frogs and toads, only five are thought to have -ecome e9tinct -etween the 1)th century and the 1)?3s. 1ut in the past &2 years, herpetologists have o-served drastic population declines and disappearances of many more species FQ!ecline and fall of the amphi-iansQ, $ew %cientist, &4 .une 1))&G. They -elieve that ') amphi-ian species are now at ris< of e9tinction. 1lac< spots The list goes on. /f the &)4 <nown species of $orth American freshwater mussels and clams, &1 are -elieved to have -ecome e9tinct since the end of the 1)th century. ;n the past 133 years, ,3 species of freshwater fish native to the =%, #anada and (e9ico have -ecome e9tinct. There are a-out )23 species of freshwater fish in $orth America. The southAwest has lost most species F&+G, and currently some 23 species of #yprinidae are at ris< of e9tinction. ;n all these diverse case histories, the regional rates of e9tinction are a-out 1,333 to 13,333 times higher than the -ac<ground rate, 8ust as with the "acific -irds. ven if these -lac< spots were the only sources of e9tinctions worldwide, which they are not, they would imply a glo-al rate of e9tinction 13 to 1,333 times higher than the -ac<ground rate. 6e can also tentatively predict future rates of e9tinction. ;f all the species now at ris< -ecome e9tinct in the ne9t 133 years, glo-al e9tinction rates will have increased to ten times their already high past rates. 6hat causes these high rates of e9tinction@ !eli-erate and accidental species introductions and ha-itat destruction are the most important factors. %ignificantly, all these case histories show how much damage even small num-ers of our species can cause, for not one is from an area where human densities are particularly high. ;ntroduced species, agriculture and dammed rivers cause e9tinctions in places where humans are fairly scarce. The amphi-ian declines are even more alarming. They suggest that the human impact of pollution may reach even remote rainforests. 6ith the world's human population mushrooming, e9tinction rates could rise further still. As ecologists see 2? it, the greatest threat to -iodiversity is the success of one species, our own. For critics li<e %imon, however, that success is the solution. The ultimate resource is people, they say A the more we have, the more ingenuity we will possess to solve the pro-lems more of us create. #ertainly, our ingenuity can replace a whale oil lamp with an electric light -ul-, -ut what it clearly cannot do is replace the whales we may drive to e9tinction. 9tinctions are irreversi-le. ;f we lose whales now we will lose the modern whaling industry: the ecoAtourists who pile into -oats to watch them. ;f we continue to lose plant species we will never discover the potential drugs, li<e ta9ol, that they may contain. 0ad some wic<ed fairy overheard centuries of housewives wishing for the e9tinction of the mou;d that spoils -read, her granting that wish would have deprived us of penicillin. %pecies matter to us, materially as well as emotionally. The controversy a-out how fast we are losing them is fundamentally a de-ate a-out our future. /ver the past centuries, we have accelerated the rate of e9tinction of species far -eyond the natural rate. /ur future is poorer as a conseEuence Fsee !iagramG. Figures: !emise of $u<aA0iva "igeon in "acific /cean This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 31 .une 1))?, *ol.123 $o.&3+& "age 1&

/il prospectors pose threat to Amazon's ancient tri-es /liver Tic<ell


T0 oil company (o-il is ris<ing the health of hundreds of Amazonian tri-es people in its search for oil in "eru's southern rainforest, according to a campaign group for indigenous peoples. (o-il is setting up a -ase camp in the remote :as "iedras region in (adre de !ios, where it is preparing to survey 12,333 sEuare <ilometres of rainforest. The ;nternational 6or< 7roup for ;ndigenous Affairs F;67;AG, -ased in #openhagen, claims the area is inha-ited -y at least three tri-es, two of which have only ever -een sighted -y outsiders from a distance. ;n 1)', and 1)'2, %hell employees had violent confrontations with the third tri-e, the $ahua, as the company e9plored for oil on an ad8acent lot. 1y 1)'?, say government anthropologists, -etween 23 and ?3 per cent of the $ahuasome +33 people had died of pneumonia, malaria, whooping cough and other diseases introduced -y oil wor<ers. ;n a letter sent to (o-il in (arch, Andrew 7ray of the ;67;A said: Q6e are not aware that e9tra safeguards have -een ta<en to minimise the environmental impact and to avoid the potentially horrific effects. . . 6e are very afraid that the uncontacted indigenous people of the "iedras will -e under great threat if (o-il wor<s in this area. ;t would -e disastrous if (o-il repeated the actions of %hell.Q

24

;n his reply, .oe !onnaway of (o-il said: Q6e are aware of the issues regarding contacted and uncontacted communities in the area and are planning appropriately.Q #liff dwards, who is in charge of (o-il's operations in southern %outh America, says the company will -e prepared for a medical emergency involving the local people. Q6e are dealing with <nown anthropologists and wor<ing through local organisations to help us understand the implications of an accidental contact,Q he says. ;n the ne9t few wee<s, (o-il will -egin seismic testing in another region of "eruvian rainforest, a-out 123 <ilometres south of :as "iedras. 0alf of this area is uninha-ited and under consideration as a national par<. The other half, the =pper >arene River region, has -een the homeland of the '33Astrong Ara<m-ut people since preA;nca times, and is claimed -y them as a communal reserve. thnic tension in the =pper >arene is already high -ecause of the invasion of the area -y more than a thousand armed gold miners over the past decade. The colonists have now occupied around a third of the naviga-le length of the river and threaten the Ara<m-ut with death if they enter areas they control. At least two Ara<m-ut people have -een murdered. ;n its 1))? #ongress, the Ara<m-ut #ouncil decided to oppose any entry to the =pper >arene -y (o-il. ;n his letter to the company, 7ray warned: QThere is fear in the communities that the e9ploration and possi-le su-seEuent activity will act as a pole of attraction for yet more colonisation from the highlands, there-y leading to more ethnic conflict.Q 1ut dwards says the company is fully aware of the ris<s and shares these concerns. Q6e are doing many things to minimise the impact,Q he says. For e9ample, all the seismic lines strips cut for seismic testing will -e screened to ensure that they are invisi-le from the river. 0e adds: Q6e will -e very careful who we employ to do the cutting.Q Forum $ew %cientist, &+ %eptem-er 1)'), *ol.1&+ $o.1?'+

The days when most ma8or 1ritish companies were in the rainforest countries -ecause the local pollution laws were less rigorous than those at home have ended. (any companies are employing environmental regulations that are 8ust as stringent as those at home. (y fear is that too much emphasis on the negative aspects will drive away the very companies which are environmentally sound. ;f that were to happen, they would certainly sell to local concerns which are less conscious a-out the environment. !uring my visit, ; stopped off at (ineracao Rio $orte on the Trom-etas River 8ust north of the Amazon. This is an open cast -au9ite mine, partially owned -y %hell, which was recently attac<ed in the press. ;t is situated in the midst of what used to -e completely undistur-ed rainforest. ; found the visit illuminating. The people running the mine made many environmental mista<es in the initial phases of the pro8ect. They freely admit to these and show them to the visitors. For e9ample, they initially removed -au9ite right to the edge of the plateau on which it is found. This caused su-stantial landslides and loss of forest from the slopes. $ow they leave a 2Ametre -elt of -au9ite at the margin, and areas where this has -een done show no signs of landslides or erosion. 1ut what is much more impressive is the increasing environmental consciousness of the operation. This is hardly surprising, -ecause an ecologist, /liver 0enry >nowles, has -een on the staff of the mine almost since its opening. 0is remit is reforestation of the areas of rainforest that have -een destroyed -y the removal of -au9ite. The -au9ite deposit covers a total of ,3,333 hectares within a larger property of ,&3,333 hectares. At present, 43 hectares per year of rainforest are -eing destroyed for mining. These are cut and -urned. 0owever, -efore the earth movers come in to e9pose the vein of -au9ite, the 12Acentimetre layer of topsoil, together with the nutritious ash from the forest, is removed and stoc<piled for use in reforested areas. /nce the -au9ite is removed, the earth is replaced, levelled, then covered with topsoil and reforestation -egins. >nowles uses some )3 native species and 1& e9otic species for his replanting, and many other species, such as the u-iEuitous secondary forest tree #ecropia, enter naturally. After seeding, the process of succession has -egun and even 1'AmonthAold plantings are covered with a lush growth. The plan is to introduce shadeAloving forest species after 13 years when the soil has -een su-stantially re-uilt and there is enough shade for them to thrive. The cost of this reforestation is D&233 per hectare, or 3.4 per cent of the direct costs of the mine. Another feature at the mine is a wee<ly session for all employees: 'Five minutes for the environment'. This has -een added to the wee<ly fiveAminute reminders a-out safety. >nowles prepares handAouts for the environmental sessions and they are certainly having an effect on the attitudes of staff at all levels. $o hunting is allowed in the area and the wee< -efore my visit five

Forum: 7ive the multinationals a -rea<C ;llAinformed criticism of their role in the rainforests could -e counterproductive 70;:: A$ "RA$#
;$ R # $T months, various newspapers have run articles attac<ing foreign companies operating in the rainforests of the Amazon. 1ritish, American and !utch companies have all -een condemned in the newspapers of their own countries. To <eep ta-s on what our companies are doing to the rainforest is most important, and the attention of the press is certainly encouraging them to -e more environmentally conscious. 0owever, a recent visit to 1razil convinced me of the danger of uninformed reporting of these issues.

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

2' engineers were sac<ed for hunting wild animals. ;t is hardly surprising, therefore, that as we arrived at the "orto Trom-etas airstrip we saw what today is a comparatively rare sight in Amazonia: a 8aguar sunning itself, 8ust +33 metres from the runwayC The mining company is in the process of getting the 1razilian nvironmental ;nstitute F;1A(AG to declare the mine and the surrounding area a conservation area. 6hen this happens, it will assume officially the responsi-ility it has already ta<en for conserving the forest. Ten per cent of the area will -e deforested and later turned -ac< to the slow process of reforestation. The regeneration will -e successful, -ecause so large a proportion of the forest, )3 per cent, will remain unscathed. ;f, on future trips to Amazonia, ; want to see the wild animals of the region such as the deer that a-ound there, 8aguar, capy-ara or turtles laying their eggs on protected -eaches, ; will go to the Rio Trom-etas, to the property of a multinational company. 6e shall save much more rainforest -y colla-orating with responsi-le companies and helping them to wor< with us in protecting the rainforests than -y driving them out of the region to -e replaced -y companies over which we have no control. Today, companies such as the one ; visited are ready to listen to advice and to ma<e costly ad8ustments to their programme to wor< towards environmental protection. Features $ew %cientist, 3+ .une 1)'), *ol.1&& $o.1??4 even over short distances -ecause of the variety of soils, vegetation and the slope of the ground. ;t also varies enormously through time -ecause of seasonal patterns of rainfall and plant growth, the impact of storms of differing magnitudes and the varying rates at which damaged soils recover. The rate of recovery depends partly on how Euic<ly soils are -ro<en down -y weathering and on the roc< over which they lie. #hal< and marl soils erode very Euic<ly -ut are pro-a-ly restored Euic<ly tooH other soils can ta<e more than a century to recover. Added to these natural differences are the effects of human activity, which are almost infinitely varied. The result of so much variation is that measurements from one place, or from several places in a particular area, are meaningless when we come to assess erosion on a regional scale. %oil scientists often measure rates of erosion on very small plotsH this may greatly e9aggerate the result for the region, -ecause much of the lost soil is redeposited further downslope and is not lost entirely from the area. Another way to estimate erosion is to measure the amount of sediment that comes downstream with river water. This has the advantage of 'averaging out' conditions for the whole river -asin, -ut material worn from the -an<s of the river also comes into the estimate. (ore accurate techniEues for measuring erosion are availa-le. !es 6alling, of the =niversity of 9eter, recently developed a way to 'fingerprint' sediments to pinpoint which part of the river -asin they came from. Radioactive fallout from the nuclear accident at #herno-yl also provides a la-el to identify the source of some eroded soils. The word 'deforestation' itself covers a wide range of evils. ;n some areas it means the systematic su-stitution of trees with ploughed landH in others, the selective removal of valua-le tim-er trees with little regard for what is left covering the groundH and in yet others, it is merely the clearance of small patches of forest for shifting cultivation. ;n places the soil remains e9posed to the elements for months or even yearsH in some tropical areas weeds reinvade the land almost immediately and soon form a dense cover. /n the edges of some desert regions, there may -e little or no rain for a long time after the trees are cleared, so that although the land is -are and contains little organic material, the soil is not vulnera-le to erosion. A <ey area is how the covering of vegetation affects erosion. For decades, hydrologists have investigated the comple9 relationships -etween plant cover and runoff. Bet even in this case, when runoff is easy to measure and the processes are much simpler than in soil erosion, satisfactory predictions are difficult to achieve. ;n studies in -oth tropical 1razil and rural 1edfordshire, .ane 1randt, of the =niversity of 1ristol, found that the <inetic energy of water dropping from the forest canopy and from the vegetation -eneath is much greater than that of rain falling in the open. This holds true whatever the size of the storm. /ther researchers have o-tained similar results in the coniferous podocarp forests of $ew Mealand and the rainforests of 1orneo. 1randt showed, 2'

%olutions to soil erosion ./0$ T0/R$ %


#lear a forest and erosion will strip off the soil. "lant a forest and you might save it: or so the theory goes. 1ut theories of soil erosion owe more to myth than to hard science %oil erosion is one of the greatest scourges of the Third 6orld. $ews reports and films -ring constant reminders of the plight of people who live in lands dogged -y famine. And after horrific pictures of starving children, the most alarming image is of tracts of land riddled with gullies and set upon -y grazing goats. All this, we are told, is the result of deforestation, where the land has -een stripped -are of its native forests. ;n the Amazon 1asin, lasting devastation of the soil, permanent changes to the climate and the end of the arth must inevita-ly follow from the onward rush of development. ven the rich and pampered country of southAeast ngland is threatened as lifeAgiving soil is swept from its downland. The images of glo-al dust -owls and future famine increase people's awareness of erosion -ut they also help to propagate a num-er of myths that have arisen from poor science. Failure to understand the real mechanisms of erosion may lead to the imposition of e9pensive, inadeEuate and sometimes fundamentally incorrect solutions. (uch of this confusion arises from the lac< of good data from the areas where erosion is worst. rosion varies

2) more precisely, that the water droplets falling from all types of plant coverings, ranging from 1russels sprouts to fully grown trees, are all around , millimetres across. 7iven the relationship -etween cover and erosion, this implies that it is the lower layers of shru-s and her-s and the layer of litter that protects the soil, rather than the tree canopy itself -ecause drops falling from them have a lower velocity and less energy for erosion. As part of the Royal 7eographical %ociety's (araca "ro8ect, a yearAlong study of (araca ;sland on the northern edge of the Amazon 1asin, a team of soil scientists and hydrologists investigated how much protection the understorey and litter give to the soil. 6ith %tephen $ortcliff, of the =niversity of Reading, my colleague %heila Ross and ; measured the changing levels of moisture in the soil, runoff from the surface and the amount of sediment produced from plots with different types of plant cover. Three control plots remained under virgin forest. Another three were cleared of trees, leaving the litter and understorey intact. ;n the third set, we removed all the cover, the canopy, understorey and litter, and <ept them clear throughout the e9periment. ;n the other two plots, we let the vegetation grow more or less uninhi-ited. A decade ago, 6olfram Fran<en, of the $ational ;nstitute for Amazonian Research in (anaus, did some e9periments which showed that around 4, per cent of the rainfall passes through the canopy of normal Amazonian forest. !uring very heavy storms, even more rain may reach the forest floor. At one spot near (anaus, we recorded )+ per cent of the rain passing through the canopy. A-out 42 per cent of the rainfall reaching the forest floor returns to the atmosphere, passing from the soil to plants to -e lost -y transpiration. /ur sites at (araca also showed that vegetation strongly influences the proportion of rainfall that runs off, although this depends on the size of the storm. For very large storms, there is little difference in the amount of runoff from different plots. 6ith smaller rains, -etween 23 and '3 per cent more water runs off -are plots than other plots. The evidence suggests strongly that the rate at which water infiltrates the soil is important too. As e9pected, the -are plots at (araca had the wettest soils -ecause there were no plants to draw off the water. These plots also suffered the highest runoff -oth -ecause they lac<ed plants and -ecause the water did not infiltrate the soil very effectively. The -are plots also produced the most sediment -ecause they lac<ed organic material to -ind the soil. ;n fact, the degree of erosion was very high compared with other environments. This is the <ind of result that has led people to eEuate the loss of trees with the loss of soil A and to assume that they have to plant more trees to avoid losing even more soil. 1ut the results from the plots that were only partially cleared gave a different lesson. Although we had removed great trees, the runoff, erosion and losses of chemical nutrients were closer to those of virgin forest than from cleared areas. This seems to confirm findings from the $ational ;nstitute for Amazonian Research that The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz rates of erosion at a range of sites in Amazonas are lower than those recorded for 1edfordshire and the 6est (idlands. The -iggest areas of intense erosion in Amazonas are on steep road cuts that are <ept artificially clear of vegetation. As our e9perience at (araca shows, it reEuires a great deal of human effort to <eep land completely clear of vegetation in this prolific environment, with an annual rainfall of &233 millimetres: nature will replenish the cover if left to its own devices. 1ut in dry lands with less than 233 millimetres of rain a year, this is no longer true. /nce vegetation is stripped from semiAarid and arid environments, it is e9tremely difficult to replace. 0ere, too, parado9es a-ound. ;n a survey of some ,3 archaeological sites in southAeast %pain, Antonio 7ilman, an American anthropologist, and ; were surprised to find evidence of e9tensive erosion in the form of gullying that must predate at least some of the sites. 1uildings and -urials some ,,333 years old occur on the sides and floors of gullies that most archaeologists thought had formed -y erosion much later, in the forest clearances of Roman times and after. #learly, the gullies were already there. The widespread assumption that forest clearance led to all the erosion over much of southern %pain is at odds with at least some of the facts. %ome of the areas of most intense erosion might never have -een covered -y trees. Recent calculations of the natural productivity of the dry areas of %pain suggest that the climate would not sustain such a rich vegetation as forest. %o unless the climate has changed mar<edly in the past 13,333 years, these areas would have -een e9tremely marginal for plants: they are the nearest thing to real deserts in mainland urope. !espite this, the standard way of protecting the soil from further erosion is to plant trees. Although this wor<s well in humid areas, usually on mountain slopes in the semiA arid lands, it may not -e -est for lowland areas that are already -adly eroded, for two reasons. First, trees have great difficulty in reAesta-lishing themselves where erosion is continuing, where water is in short supply and where, as a result of erosion, the soil is lac<ing in nutrients. ;n these conditions, the trees will even increase erosion -y changing the size of raindrops, unless they have a good understorey. %econdly, even if trees do -ecome esta-lished, they produce wood very slowlyH longAterm investment would -e needed to ensure any meaningful economic returns. A cheaper form of protection ;n some recent e9periments in %pain, #arolyn Francis and ; compared the protection given to the soil -y trees, mattoral Fa dense, shru--y vegetation a-out a metre highG and a partial covering of stones, under simulated rainfall of different intensities. "redicta-ly, the almost unvegetated stony ground showed a large amount of erosion, though the stones certainly offer some protection. The low shru-, of species characteristic of the area -etween (alaga and Alicante, protects as well as a cover of trees. The emerging message is that we should consider mattoral as a cheap and effective way to prevent

?3 erosion in lowland areas rather than doggedly planting trees. 1ut the land must -e protected from grazing. There is one further parado9 in the south of %pain: the amount of sediment carried in rivers or -uilding up in reservoirs is enormously varia-le. %ome of the landscapes that appear most -arren produce the least sediment. ;n part, this anomaly must -e the result of inaccurate measurement and infreEuent o-servations. ;t is clear, however, that some of the most intensely eroded landscapes are no longer producing much sediment. The usual e9planation is that the climate has changed, -ut there is little evidence for this over the past ?,333 years. ;t is more li<ely that some areas are so eroded that not much more erosion can ta<e place. The process of gullying is responsi-le for most of the sediment, which is released as the networ< of natural drainage channels e9tends into new areas. 7ullies form after nature or people strip off the vegetation, when the climate -ecomes drier and the vegetation sparser, or when rivers -ite deeply as the land rises in response to changes in the arth's crust. /ur recent theoretical wor< on erosion indicates that an area may -ecome 'saturated' so that although the landscape is devastated, a <ind of eEuili-rium sets in, resisting further change. #ompetition for space may prevent more gully heads from forming. At this point movement of soil downslope -ecomes more important than the growth of channels. Attempts to manage erosion in these devastated areas are unli<ely to help farmers. They should simply -e left, protected from grazing animals. This will allow a semiA natural vegetation to grow -ac< over the soil, protecting it from erosion as a result of water runoff and reducing the ris< of flood damage. The most critical areas are those where erosion is 8ust -eginning: protection is very e9pensive, and it should -e directed where it will do most good. "eople concerned directly with development share this view . At the core of the range of pro-lems related to soil erosion is its relationship with vegetation, especially in the earliest stages of a-andonment, whether -y a slashA andA-urn farmer, as part of a crop rotation that leaves land fallow, or as part of a policy of setAaside. At this point, there is essentially a competition -etween vegetation cover and erosion: sometimes one wins, sometimes the other. ;f erosion can esta-lish a hold, it causes more erosion through a positive feed-ac<. %tripping off the cover e9poses soils that cannot a-sorso much water, so encouraging higher runoff and further erosion. The loss of cover also impoverishes the remaining soil, ma<ing it harder for plants to esta-lish themselves. 1ut if vegetation can esta-lish itself, it protects the soil and encourages more vegetation -y increasing the soil's capacity to hold water and providing organic -inding agents. ;n semiAarid areas the plant cover also shades the ground, lowering temperatures and decreasing the amount of water lost -y evaporation, and preventing crusts from forming on the surface of the soil. A hard crust encourages runoff and ma<es erosion worse. At 1ristol, we have developed mathematical models to try to predict the circumstances in which either vegetation or erosion will win the struggle . From these models, we can identify the conditions that are critical, when a short 'push' will shift the system either to complete vegetation cover or to completely denuded hillsides. %oil erosion can -e an important social and economic pro-lem. ;t results from the progressive deterioration of the climate, or from human ignorance or negligence. The pro-lem is not helped -y classifying it under the heading of 'desertification'. Rather it is -est recognised as a set of comple9 and parado9ical physical processes whose rate can -e altered dramatically -y human activity. !espite great strides in some areas, there is still much to -e learnt -efore we can solve some of these parado9es. "lants and erosion -attle it out T0 relationship -etween erosion and vegetation is a very comple9 one. As soon as a farmer gives up cultivating a patch of land, one of two things can happen. "lants can reinvade, to produce a semiAnatural vegetation. /r erosion can continue apace until the land is entirely ruined. ;n any attempt to reha-ilitate the soil after it has -een eroded, it helps to have an idea of which way the process will go A towards further erosion or to recovery. 6e can gain some idea from mathematical models of the competition -etween erosion and plant regeneration. At 1ristol, we set up differential eEuations to descri-e the change in the rate of erosion and the growth of vegetation. The rate of erosion is a positive function of past erosion, which decreases the soil's capacity to hold water, the rate of infiltration and the resistance of the soil F-y removing organic matterG. This yields a logistic growth, which is constrained either -y lac< of further soil Fit has all -een erodedG or the capacity to transport soil Fthere is not enough runoff to carry it awayG. The rate of erosion is reduced -y vegetation cover. The rate of growth of vegetation is also logistic. (ore cover provides more shade, a higher rate of infiltration, more moisture in the soil at the end of the winter and so more growth. This positive feed-ac< is eventually limited -y competition -etween plants for water, light and nutrients. rosion slows growth -y removing nutrients and organic compounds. The solutions to the nonAlinear eEuations give a picture of the dynamics and sta-ility of the system after they have -een cali-rated against field data. The figure illustrates the general principles of the twoAeEuation system. The curves *S3 and %S3 indicate where there is no change in the rate of erosion or the rate of cover. At A, the intersection of the two eEuili-ria, -oth components are constant. 0owever, this is a very unsta-le position to -e in: a slight change in soil erosion will shift the system either to complete vegetation or no vegetation, as indicated -y the arrows. Anywhere in the triangle /A!, the vegetation always wins, with the ?3

?1 system moving towards full cover at !. ;n terms of management of the soil, /A! is the 'safe' triangle. ;f you can -ring the soil into this sector, the vegetation will move ine9ora-ly to full cover. A fullAscale model ta<es many more factors into account, including one to e9press the effects of grazing. *ariations of the models can show where species of plants that are more or less efficient in their use of water will grow. This is useful -ecause more efficient plants are -etter a-le to compete with erosion. Figures: A model for soil erosion This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 3+ (arch 1))3, *ol.1&2 $o.143?

FR ! " AR#
The first international pro8ect to help save a country's rainforests was launched last wee< when the 6orld 1an<, the uropean #ommission and the 7roup of %even leading industrialised nations agreed to grant 1razil D&23 million for conservation in the Amazon -asin. The agreement follows more than a year of negotiations after the 74 first offered aid in 1))3. The final agreement lays great stress on science, with more than D133 million earmar<ed for improving salaries, endowing professorial chairs and -uying new eEuipment at two science institutes in the Amazon region. These are the $ational ;nstitute of 1razilian %tudies at (anaus and the 7oeldi (useum at 1elem. The programme will also fund the esta-lishment of national par<s, tri-al reserves and new zones set aside e9clusively for nonAdestructive activities such as ru--er tapping and collecting 1razil nuts. ;n return for the money, 1razil conceded control of the purse strings. The donors will pay their donations into a Rain Forest Trust run -y the 6orld 1an< and 'all pro8ects must -e approved -y the 6orld 1an<' Fsee This 6ee<, 4 !ecem-erG. /n the eve of last wee<'s meeting, Friends of the arth ;nternational claimed victory for its campaign to prevent 1razil from including in the programme a large pro8ect to plant eucalyptus trees across 13,333 sEuare <ilometres of former natural forest land in the #ara8as region. The trees would provide wood pulp for industry. 1ut documents of the meeting say that the plantation, which uropean governments had said was inappropriate in a conservation programme, was still '-eing considered -y the government of 1razil for inclusion in the pilot programme'. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, 1' .uly 1))&, *ol.1+2 $o.1'+3 "age 2

The American Association for the Advancement of %cience: #lues to Amazonia's watery past !A$ #0AR: %, !A*;! !;#>%/$ and #0R;%T/"0 R ./B#
T0 0;%T/RB of the Amazon remains as hotly disputed as its future. !epending who you as<, a-out +3,333 years ago Amazonia was either a cool, damp place where today's tropical species found refuge in the lowest of the lowlands, or it was covered -y an enormous la<e. "aul #olinvau9 of /hio %tate =niversity says that pollen records show that tropical plants migrated into the lowlands of Amazonia during the last ice age. 6armer temperatures there allowed them to survive. 6e were 'perilously close' to an e9tinction of tropical species -ecause of the cool temperatures, #olinvau9 told the AAA%. 1ut according to >enneth #amp-ell of the :os Angeles (useum of $atural 0istory, those lowlands were covered with water during at least part of the time, from ,2,333 years ago until ?,333 years ago. %ediment patterns show rivers that apparently flowed inland into a large la<e. They also show the remains of ancient deltas around the rim of a huge area of the Amazon, and layers of clay that were deposited at that time. The fact that one can still travel -y -oat from the northern coast of *enezuela through 1razil to the %outh Atlantic also shows that those waterways formed recently, after the la<e was drained. ';t is inconceiva-le to me that this northAsouth water connection could have continued to e9ist for millions of years,' said #amp-ell. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, &1 !ecem-er 1))1, *ol.1+& $o.1'33 "age 4

6orld 1an< pro8ects punished the poor FR ! " AR#


Tens of thousands of poor families have -een thrown off their land in remote regions of 1razil as a result of development pro8ects funded -y the 6orld 1an<, the world's largest international aid -ody. The -an<'s admission comes in documents prepared earlier this year -y its operations evaluation department. The five volumes, mar<ed 'for official use only', reveal that a series of large development pro8ects A in the Amazon rainforest, the droughtAprone northAeast of the country and the slums of %ao "aulo A cost the -an< more than D1 -illion during the 1)43s and 1)'3s. 1ut they impoverished many of the people they were designed to help, freEuently destroyed the natural environment and contri-uted to the floods of landless migrants that have

Rainforest rescue plan

The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

?& made other development schemes ever harder to implement. The reports show how dams and irrigation pro8ects along more than a thousand <ilometres of the Rio %ao Francisco, one of 1razil's largest rivers, have 'displaced tens of thousands of people and had other significant socioAeconomic impacts', such as 'the replacement of su-sistence smallholders with commercially oriented larger farmers'. %ome 43,333 people lost their land to the %o-radinho hydroelectric dam on the river. A resettlement programme for the evacuees failed. '*illages esta-lished near the reservoir did not prosper, as farmers freEuently lac<ed the credit and support services needed to overcome pro-lems caused -y poor soils, incomplete irrigation facilities, changing water levels and increased distances to mar<ets.' (any farmers sold up and left, moving to the rapidly growing slums in the region's cities. The operation of the dam increased the flows in the river during the dry season, reEuiring 'emergency operations to protect the flood plains near the mouth of the river'. The -an< esta-lished irrigated polders across some &23 sEuare <ilometres of the lower valley. This scheme, it says, 'a-sor-ed &3,333 people, whose incomes were reportedly more than tripled'. Bet thousands of other farmers in the lower valley suffered from flooding of their land and 'reduced natural soil fertility' -ecause the river sediment that once fertilised their soils is now trapped upstream -ehind the dam. ;n a second dam pro8ect in the same valley, says the -an<, ,3,333 people were rehoused to ma<e way for the ;taparica dam, at a cost 'li<ely to e9ceed D?+,333 per family'. !espite the e9pense of this operation, carried out in 1)'4 and 1)'', -y 1))& the promised irrigation schemes to water the rehoused people's new farms had not materialised. The resulting 'prolonged idleness' has resulted in 'incidents of intraAcommunal violence, alcohol a-use, family disintegration and low morale'. The 6orld 1an< reports also review two large pro8ects in the Amazon, upholding many of the criticisms made of the pro8ects -y environmentalists. /ne was the #ara8as mining pro8ect, which included a 1,333A<ilometre railway to ta<e the output of 'one of the world's richest mineral deposits' to the Atlantic coast for e9port. The '-roader environmental conseEuences' of this 'were not adeEuately foreseen'. These included a wave of migration into the area along the railway -y farmers and gold prospectors, which caused massive rainforest destruction and persecution of local ;ndians. Away from the mine itself, the -an< says, 'environmental protection measures were almost entirely lac<ing'. (uch the same happened at the "olonoroeste pro8ect for rural development and road construction in western ?& Amazonia, which the -an< says it regarded in the early 1)'3s as one of its most progressive schemes. The aim was to provide an income for migrants already in the area -y improving farm output and access to mar<ets -y road. 1ut 'under the circumstances', the -an< now says, 'it was inevita-le that road -uilding would stimulate additional migration'. The pro8ect came at a time of national economic crisis that hit the poor in cities such as %ao "aulo and Rio especially hard. This and 'the government's ina-ility to . . . <eep incoming migrants from attempting to e9ploit the very areas that the programme was designed to protect' created a cycle of forest destruction and conseEuent soil e9haustion and erosion that stretches for hundreds of <ilometres along the roads funded -y the -an<. Reviewing its record, the -an< said that from the start all the pro8ects 'had -een e9amined with a concern for the environment', -ut that 'some of the choices made at the design and appraisal stages . . . appear to have -een inadeEuate'. 1ut it -elieves that its 'mi9ed' record has yielded lessons that 'are already -eing applied in 1razil'. This 6ee< $ew %cientist, &) Fe-ruary 1))&, *ol.1++ $o.1'13 "age 12 Amazon nations name their price 1R;A$ 0/( 6//! R;/ ! .A$ ;R/ %outh American countries have ta<en a tough negotiating stance for ne9t wee<'s conference in $ew Bor< to prepare for the arth %ummit. The Amazon pact nations call for financial and technological help in return for agreement on measures to stop glo-al warming, arguing that any environmental treaty should not affect Third 6orld economies. The declaration was signed -y the presidents of 1razil, cuador, #olom-ia, 7uyana, %urinam and 1olivia and representatives from "eru and *enezuela at a meeting in (anaus, 1razil, earlier this month. ;t deals with topics that will -e discussed ne9t wee<, including sustaina-le forestry and the climate and -iodiversity conventions. '1iological resources are without dou-t the natural resources of the countries which e9ercise sovereignty over them,' says the document. ;t calls for intergovernmental agreements to promote their sustaina-le use. These would include international cooperation on research into -iotechnology and mechanisms to protect traditional ;ndian <nowledge of plants, and to pay compensation for the commercial use of tri-al <nowledge. "aulo Franca of the 1razilian foreign ministry, who helped to draft the document, says: '/ur natural resources -elong to us and we want international cooperation so they can -e used and conserved in the -est possi-le way.' 0e claims that foreign companies use

?+ the genetic resources of plants without the <nowledge of the governments concerned. 'This has not -een the case with 1razil -ut we still want to safeguard against this happening.' The declaration -lames developed countries for glo-al warming. ;t says any climate convention 'should not affect the economic and commercial interests of the developing nations'. The transfer of environmentally appropriate technology should -e a condition for fulfilling promises on the environment, says the document. ;t also argues that: '$ew financial resources are necessary . . . to help the developing countries fulfil their o-ligation to protect the environment.' Features $ew %cientist, 14 .une 1))2, *ol.1,? $o.1)'& "age ++ others@ ;n -oth cases, conservationists have -een reA thin<ing the criteria they use. 6hen endangered species -ecame a frontA-urner issue in the 1)?3s and 1)43s, policy ma<ers adopted vague, almost circular definitions of the term. The ;=#$, which pu-lishes the Red !ata 1oo<s that list endangered species, defined endangered species as those Qin danger of e9tinction and whose survival is unli<ely if the causal factors continue operatingQ. The #onvention on ;nternational Trade in ndangered %pecies F#;T %G used similar wording for its highest category of concern. ;n the decades since, many -iologists have grown uncomforta-le with these definitions, fearing that they allow too much room for political e9pediency and whim. 1iologists agree in principle on the red flags that signal that a species faces impending e9tinction. First, species with only one or two surviving populations have all their ecological eggs in one -as<et and so could -e wiped out -y a single stro<e of -ad luc< such as a drought or a disease. %econd, those with too few individuals will not have the genetic resources to cope with an everA changing world. And third, plummeting num-ers of any species A no matter how common A must mean that something is seriously amiss. 1ut are three roo<eries of a penguin species enough to guarantee its survival@ 0ow few is Qtoo fewQ elephants@ And how far, and how fast, do the num-ers of a certain cactus have to fall -efore we ought to worry@ Rule of thum%ome conservation -iologists say there are no general answers to Euestions li<e these, -ecause every species occupies a uniEue ecological setting. QThere's no short cut,Q says !aniel %im-erloff, a conservation -iologist at Florida %tate =niversity in Tallahassee. 6hen it comes to assessing the ris< of e9tinction, Qyou really need a-out a doctoral dissertation's worth of research on a species to ma<e a reasona-le estimateQ, he says. 1ut in a world inha-ited -y un<nown millions of species, thousands of which are already in peril, there simply are not enough doctoral students to go around. "olicy ma<ers need rules of thum-, even imperfect ones, says 7eorgina (ace, a research fellow at the Moological %ociety of :ondon. Attempting to draw up such guidelines in conservation is no more ar-itrary than setting income limits for pu-lic assistance programmes, she says. Q veryone accepts that for practical reasons and reasons of eEuality you have to have those rules. For some reason, it seems to -e much more controversial in -iology.Q :ast year an ;=#$ panel headed -y (ace and %imon %tuart of ;=#$ completed a fiveAyear effort to set crisp, numerical criteria -y which species might -e considered, in increasing order of threat, Qvulnera-leQ, QendangeredQ or QcriticalQ. The criteria it set are comple9, reflecting the multiplicity of danger signs. For a species to -e rated as QendangeredQ, for e9ample, fewer than &23 individuals must survive, -y the -est availa-le estimateH or fewer than &233 mature individuals if they

$oah's new challenge: !eciding which species and ha-itats to save in a world teeming with candidates is a nightmare. Reports on the struggle to ma<e conservation more scientific 1/1 0/:( %
:;> A$B harassed e9ecutive whose inAtray overflows with pro8ects, Russell (ittermeier has too many options and too little time and money to see them through. 1ut (ittermeier, the president of #onservation ;nternational in 6ashington !#, is not 8ust choosing whether to -uild laser gizmos or tur-oA#!AR/(Awidgets. The fate of hundreds, perhaps thousands of the world's endangered species hangs on the decisions he helps to ma<e. For e9ample, which is more important: a nature reserve to protect wild asses in %omalia, or one to protect lemurs in (adagascar@ %hould international donors -ac< a 1razilian national par< in the western Amazon, or in the Atlantic coastal forest@ To meet the conservation needs in developing countries alone would cost nearly D14 -illion a year, according to a 1))1 estimate -y the ;=#$ Fthe 6orld #onservation =nionG, the =$ nvironment "rogramme and the 6orld 6ide Fund for $ature. "resent levels of spending pro-a-ly provide no more than a Euarter of that sum, says 6alter Reid, viceApresident of the 6orld Resources ;nstitute in 6ashington !#. To ma<e the most of the scarce resources they have, conservation planners need clear, wellA8ustified priorities. 1ut setting these priorities is far from straightforward. (any priority setters elect to preserve as many endangered species as possi-le -y concentrating their efforts on -iodiversity Qhot spotsQ such as the Amazon rainforest. A growing num-er, however, are opting for a newer strategy of -uilding a -alanced portfolio of nature reserves that includes representatives of every ma8or type of ha-itat, even if that ultimately means saving fewer endangered species in total. The fate of either approach could depend on the answers to two fundamental Euestions: how do you define QendangeredQ, and are some species more valua-le than The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

?, occur in a single population or their num-ers are dwindling or e9pected to. %pecies also Eualify as QendangeredQ if their num-ers have declined -y more than 23 per cent in the past 13 years or + generations, whichever is longer. %o too do species that occupy less than 233 sEuare <ilometres of ha-itat and show other signs of trou-le, such as declining, fragmented or wildly fluctuating populations. ;n $ovem-er 1)),, the mem-er nations of #;T % unanimously adopted a similar set of criteria, although the numerical thresholds were relegated to a footnote to satisfy critics who felt that any single set of num-ers could not apply to every species. These new, more precise criteria may cool the political -attles over some of #;T %' more controversial decisions, and put any de-ate on a more scientific footing. QThe Euantitative criteria ma<e it more difficult to argue that -lac< is white, and a more scientific de-ate has to ta<e place than the normal screams and howls,Q says %tuart. At the same #;T % conference, for e9ample, several #entral American countries argued vehemently that American -igAleaf mahogany is a threatened species, while several %outh American countries maintained 8ust as passionately that it is not. ;f delegates could have referred to an o-8ective, unam-iguous set of criteria, the de-ate might have generated less heat and more light, several participants said later. To test the new ;=#$ criteria, (ace and her colleagues as<ed endangeredA species specialists to generate lists of endangered verte-rates and some plants, then compared these with old lists drawn up using ;=#$'s more su-8ective measures. Q;n every place we've used them, the conseEuence of applying the TnewU criteria is that more species have -een listed A usually only two to ten per cent more,Q says (ace. The new system, she says, seems more li<ely to include very rare -ut widespread species. 0owever, locally a-undant species with very restricted ranges seem less li<ely to -e rated as endangered A a possi-le shortcoming of the new criteria. First steps 1ut drawing up lists of endangered species is only half the -attle, says (ace. Q; see listing as -eing the first, inclusive step. Bou ma<e sure that that step, while -eing relatively rigorous, includes as many species as you would reasona-ly want.Q The ne9t step is to decide how much time and effort to devote to each of the deserving species. QThat's a more e9clusive activity,Q she says. QBou need to -e more precise a-out what it is you're trying to ma9imise.Q For e9ample, should conservationists simply try to save as many species as possi-le, starting with the most highly endangered, or are certain species in some sense more worth saving than others@ /n ethical grounds, at any rate, many conservation -iologists maintain that every species has an eEual right to survive, and that humans have no right to favour one over another. /thers argue that larger, more intelligent animals have a stronger claim on humans' interest and loyalty. Q; cannot accord a planarian or a copepod the ?, same sort of value ; accord an elephant or a gorilla,Q says 6illiam #onway, general director of the 6ildlife #onservation %ociety in $ew Bor< #ity. :arger animals often play more important ecological roles, he adds. For e9ample, -y trampling and feeding on vegetation, elephants help maintain the open woodlands used -y many other species. 1ut not every important species is large, says #onway. Ants, termites and pollinating insects can also play <ey roles in their ecosystems and are eEually deserving of attention. %ometimes, too, a species may -e singled out for its evolutionary importance. The tailed frog of western $orth America, for e9ample, is the only surviving mem-er of an entire -ranch of the frog evolutionary tree, having diverged from its cousins some 123 million years ago. The e9tinction of this frog would leave a -igger hole than would pruning a mere twig of a species or su-species with many close relatives. Finally, many scientists argue that large, glamorous animals such as tigers or spotted owls deserve special attention -ecause conservation efforts directed at QflagshipQ species often rescue a whole flotilla of smaller species in their wa<e. QBou're loo<ing for multiplier effects,Q says .ohn Ro-inson, director of international conservation programmes at the 6ildlife #onservation %ociety. Q;f you protect a significant population of tigers, you're going to have to protect a significant chun< of dry forest in ;ndia, and that's also important. %urvival strategy 1ut deciding which species are in danger will not do any good unless conservationists can also wor< out a strategy to help them survive. Apart from the specialised su-discipline of captive -reeding A restricted to a tiny fraction of the world's threatened species -y limits on time, money and the capacity of the world's zoos A most conservation programmes protect whole ha-itats, not individual species. (any conservationists maintain that the ecosystems themselves, not their component species, should -e the paramount goal of their efforts. After all, says Ro-inson, Qif we were only interested in preserving the tiger, we would -reed them in zoos. 1ut we're really interested in preserving that whole wild area in which the tiger lives.Q #onserving ha-itats rather than individual species offers several advantages. 6hen a government sets aside a -loc< of ha-itat as a par< or reserve, it preserves every thing in it A even o-scure organisms that scientists have yet to identify and name, let alone count. 0a-itat loss is the single factor most li<ely to push an imperilled species over the edge, so saving ha-itats is at the heart of conservation. A ha-itatA centred approach also offers conservationists the opportunity to act early, catching species -efore they teeter at the -rin< of e9tinction. %uch an approach su-stitutes preventive medicine for conservation's conventional Qcasualty departmentQ strategy. And li<e patients in casualty, species that show up on endangered lists may already -e -eyond saving.

?2 same ha-itat type, comparing li<e with li<e. ;n this way, for e9ample, grasslands and deserts did not have to compete for attention with rainforests. Q;t's clear you want to -e most concerned a-out high -iological value and critical threat,Q says Redford. Q1ut after that you have to start ma<ing really su-8ective decisions a-out whether it's more important to wor< in areas that have less -iological value -ut are highly threatened, or in areas with high -iological value that are less threatened.Q 1y treating dry forests, grasslands and deserts as important in their own right, the wor<shop gave the drier ecosystems of southern %outh America high priority ran<ings for the first time. 1ringing these ecosystems out from under the shadow of tropical rainforests helped redress an old slight, says Redford. Q=ntil recently, people said, Rthere is no -iodiversity there' which is 8ust a-surd,Q he says. QThe "ampas region is argua-ly the most threatened ecosystem on the whole continent, eEuivalent to the prairies in the =% A tiny little pieces left on private holdings. And most people don't even thin< of it.Q $ew order "arado9ically, the strategy of preserving a QportfolioQ of different ha-itat types suggests that conservationists should spend at least some of their time and money on ha-itats such as the -oreal forest of #anada, which is in little danger of eradication. Though critics might argue that giving high priority to such conservation efforts merely wastes scarce resources that could have saved truly threatened species elsewhere, Redford prefers to thin< of it as preventive medicine. Q!o you want to <eep healthy people healthy, or do you only want to treat sic< people@ The current thin<ing is li<e saying that ; want to devote all my resources to emergency rooms ... Bou need to worry a-out those -oreal forests -efore they turn into prairies.Q 1y distri-uting their priorities more -roadly, conservationists may also -e a-le to tap into new sources of funding, says (ittermeier. For e9ample, now that #hile's forests have emerged as a top priority, the #hilean government may devote more money to their conservation. :i<ewise, %outh Africa has no rainforests, -ut the #ape flora is the most diverse (editerraneanAli<e ecosystem on the planet. QThe more recognition you can get for that, the more li<ely %outh Africa will pay attention to it themselves. And they have money,Q says (ittermeier. The new -alanced portfolio strategy is 8ust a few years old. ;t remains to -e seen how well it will wor< in practice. 1ut one thing seems certain. Regardless of how conservationists set their priorities, a lot of hard, detailed wor< lies ahead. QBou <now, there's no way to win a conservation -attle,Q says #onway. QBou can only lose one, -ecause the -attle continues. The secret A and the price A of successful conservation is going to -e constant innovation, constantly finding new solutions to new pro-lems.Q

/ver the past decade, many conservation organisations have -egun focusing on ha-itats, -ut the same nagging Euestion pops up here too: how do you decide which ha-itats should -e given the highest conservation priority@ #onservation planners usually aim their efforts at Q-iodiversity hot spotsQ A those ha-itats and countries with the greatest diversity or the most endangered species A with the goal of saving the most species per unit of effort. For e9ample, #onservation ;nternational recognises 12 tropical rainforest hot spots, including (adagascar, ;ndonesia, the eastern slopes of the Andes and the Atlantic forest of 1razil. Although the 12 hot spots together occupy only , per cent of the arth's land surface, they contain an estimated +3 to ,3 per cent of all terrestrial species and more than their share of the world's endangered species. 0ot spots could -e ran<ed not only -y the num-er of species present, -ut also -y their evolutionary uniEueness. =sing this approach, a computer program called 6orldmap, developed at the $atural 0istory (useum in :ondon, assem-les data on the distri-utions of plants and animals, weights each species according to its evolutionary uniEueness, and then selects hot spots where the sum of these values is greatest. After each reserve has -een set aside, 6orldmap recalculates priorities such that the ne9t choice avoids duplicating the species already protected. A second, and newer, approach to ha-itat conservation uses the metaphor of $oah's Ar<. =nli<e the 1i-lical ar<, however, which $oah stoc<ed with individual species, planners will fill the new ar< with ecosystems. As >ent Redford, director of conservation science and stewardship of the :atin American division of the conservation organisation $ature #onservancy, points out: Q;f one were to imagine the ne9t Rgreat flood', when you off load that ar< there ought to -e something that goes to every part of the world and serves as the seed for reAintegrating that area ecologically. =nder many of the current paradigms that drive priorityAsetting, you'd have this rich tropical rainforest, and the rest would still -e mud, -ecause you hadn't saved any of it.Q ;n other words, the ar< strategy calls for conservation planners to spread their efforts across all the ma8or ha-itat types, no matter how rich or poor in species diversity, and no matter how common or rare their constituent species. QThe a9iom of this argument is that you cannot compare across ha-itat types. Bou cannot say that a rainforest is more important than a desert,Q says Redford. The ar< strategy got a highAprofile road test last %eptem-er at a wor<shop in (iami to develop conservation priorities for :atin America and the #ari--ean. :atin American e9perts and representatives of ma8or international conservation organisations divided the continent, which has seven ma8or ha-itat types, into +2 regions. Then participants prioritised these regions according to -iological importance, degree of threat and the li<elihood that conservation activities succeed. 0owever, they only compared regions with the The Amazon: $ew %cientist articles :eo "erezARuiz

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