Category: South America

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Large thriving network of settlements thrived in Columbian Amazon before European settlers

Both the Amazon and the Congo have been given the status of totally virgin rainforest, without any human impact. What is becoming increasingly clear is that this is not the case.

Instead it is the case, that the communities which lived here -sometimes in large numbers, lived in balance with the environment.

Pre Columbian settlement evidence in the Amazon

Archaeologists have found vast network of settlements in the Columbian Amazon, spanning hundreds or even thousands of square km, consisting of a main settlement with huge platforms, and smaller settlements spread out around. All are linked by causeways, and canals and reservoirs dotted the land to make agriculture possible.

To be sure, these settlements were low density, but they successfully lived in harmony with the rainforest for centuries.

Oddly, while these communities prospered for 1000 years, they disappeared before Columbus arrived, and it is not clear why.

How should this impact work these days? I am not sure. There are no large groups of modern people who have learnt to live in harmony with their environment, but clearly bush people have. Perhaps we need to follow their example – though the current indigenous people of the Amazon do not live in settlements of large size, otherwise we would have know about these centuries ago,

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Amazon researchers have created a huge photo database including more than 150,000 images from camera traps

Increasing amounts of research in wilderness habitats is done by camera traps. These can be left taking pictures for days or weeks or even years. As the Camera is silent it often does not get noticed at all (unless it needs to illuminate the scene.

150,000 pictures is a huge amount of data and it is entirely possible that analysis will identify more useful information that has not as yet been noticed.

A wide variety of wildlife is represented from jaguars to spectacled bears. indeed 317 birds mammals and reptiles are represented in this treasure trove. Collaboration and sharing of collected pictures and similar will only become more important as the ability and tools to analyse the data improves. Collaboration has greatly improved over time but still needs to get better.

In places like the Amazon, we also have significant issues – Jair Bolsonaro the current president of Brazil has been against established science throughout his term. If he is re-elected (and if he is it is likely the end of the Brazilian rainforest) then this information is likely to be horded, as it will show how stupid many of his statements are

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The manned wolf is being seen increasingly often in the Amazon rainforest

The manned wolf that looks rather like a fox on stilts. It is found throughout South American Savannahs

Not actually a fox or a wolf, the manned wolf exists in its own genus.

Living on open savannahs the manned wolf is unfortunately facing the loss of most of its habitat. Though we hear about the loss of the Amazon rainforest the most, all other ecosystems in South America are also under threat.

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Much of the Amazon deforestation will cause destruction of the land that is being taken

In much of the Amazon rainforest destruction is in order to increase the amount of land that can be farmed.

There is not mass starvation in Brazil, in fact to the contrary most of the crops grown will be sold abroad. Never-the-less if is irrelevant as the land will not be usable for crops for very long. The area will rapidly switch to desert

Great areas are being deforested in order to grow crops.

The problem is, that the rainfall is largely caused by the rainforest. Therefore, by cutting down the rainforest you remove this rainfall.

Not only is rainforest destruction a dangerous thing for the community, but the land will be worthless within a short time of it being deforested.

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2 and a half billion trees died after the El Nino of 2015-6 in the Amazon

El Nino are natural weather phenonium generally occurring between every 2 and 7 years. It would appear that as predicted, the El Nino is getting worse as a result of climate change.

This mass die off released carbon dioxide greater than the annual emissions of a country like the UK or Australia.

The fear is that this will become a common event as the planet warms.

The problem is that with this much carbon released, the Amazon as a whole was flipped from being a net absorber toa net emitter of carbon.

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Academics fear that if Bolsonaro is re-elected in October, the Amazon rainforest will collapse during his second term

The signs of collapse are getting more and more clear. Fires droughts and land clearances are all pushing the Amazon towards collapse. Yet Jair Bolsonaro is not interested having put his head in the sand. Instead he is busy placating powerful agribusiness lobby and trying to get the global economy to reward his bad behaviour.

Could this become increasingly what Brazil looks like? If it does, how will it feed its growing population?

The blows to forest protection have come fast in the last year. It is unclear how much of the Brazilian population understands how big the threat is that Bolsonaro is ignoring.

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Land speculators are moving into Camps Amazonicos National park

Deforestation has leapt 37% over the last 5 years. Large numbers of people have been moving into this park in the hope that Bolsonaro will loosen its protection, and then their land claims will become legal.

Deforestation in this reserve has accelerated dramatically

This is unfortunately the effect that often occurs when a new administration doesn’t care about conservation.

In various moves, the current Brazilian government has encouraged these land seizures by not punishing or indeed legalizing the seizure.

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Bears should be given more respect as predators

It is often suggested that bears are merely opportunistic when it comes to meat eating. The suggestion is that bears are vegetarians who are capable of scavenging from dead animals.

Now, of course we need to be careful as bears have a wide range of intelligences. Brown bears have an intelligence on par with chimpanzees, where as black bears are far less bright (though they are still one of the brightest animals).

Elk in an open field Marie and Alistair Knock
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End the practice of giving livestock to poor families abroad – or at least make sure where it is going it will help

For decades there have been schemes, where people from wealthy countries give someone a gift of a gift for those elsewhere. In most cases, the gift is a goat or cow to a family living in one of the poorest countries on earth.

while giving a goat or other livestock can seem like a good idea, it can often make the situation worse in the long run.

In theory, this is a lovely idea. The family is better off and well fed. In practice it seems that it can often do more harm than good.

In many of the areas that these livestock are sent, there is little water. These livestock need a lot of water, so their introduction can quickly change the water balance in the area, and push it towards desert.

Often the animal cannot be found enough food or drink, and veterinarian care is completely missing.

Much more useful is to support seed hubs, water irrigation systems and soil regeneration. While these do not produce the sweet picture, they are likely to benefit hundreds of people rather than one family, and often for decades to come.

That is not to say goat gifts are useless, in places with plenty of water, they can produce milk and meat, and can also have 6 kids a year which can be sold. A goat gift in the wrong place is worse than useless.

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