"The nature that preceded human history no longer exists anywhere" Karl Marx
"The very signs also which we form our judgement are often very deceptive; a soil that is adorned with tall and graceful trees is not always a favorable one, except, of course for those trees." Pliny, Natural History
Strolling
through the Amazon rainforest, one might marvel at the virginity of the
land and have the impression to be in the midst of true wilderness. in
fact, biologists have recently realized that the forest is mostly man-made.
For us, naive citizens of intensely developped countries, this seems impossible
when looking at the densely chaotic vegetation spreading over acres and
acres with very little trace of organized activity. It is now thought that,
over the centuries, the indigenous people have shaped the most part of
the forest by an array of manipulations, to make their environement a sustainable
ressource. The Babassu palm forest was first thought of as natural;
the Kayapo Indians directly planted useful species in better locations.
Placing them along trekking trails, in forest gaps, in camping sites, in
favored hunting aresas, they create what is called resource islands, areas
of useful plants important to the larger human community and the regional
ecology. These resource islands also attract wild animals, providing the
Indians with game. The Kayapo lands are about the size of France! No wonder
we have trouble in finding the logic of such a spacious agricultural system,
we who marvel at the efficiency of intensive agriculture. The XIXth century
naturalists exploring the forest were dumbounded by its richness but they
always deplored its poor use. They were partly right: the contrast between
the luxuriance of nature and the poverty of certain regions is striking.
But they thought european agriculture was the only way to make profit out
of this apparently fabulously fertile soil. They were wrong; the soil is
poor. The Indians are the only ones who know how to exploit the untamed
resources of the forest. Our concepts of agriculture are entirely deficient
for understanding the basis of resource management and production by these
people. The official Brazilian view is that they are wards of the state
and have no political existence. In fact they are accomplished environmental
scientists and have had market activities for ages, adapting well to market
pressures and keeping their forest and their societies almost intact. Those
who look upon the rainforest as a biology entity devoifd of human intelligence
are bound to consider forest clearance as the only rationaly form of development.
Those who look a bit deeper in the life of the forest quickly realize the
irrationality of such practices.
research topics:
agribusiness in Brazil
Thematical Maps on
Brazil
Landownership
forest farming
NTFPs
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