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The
Atlantic Cloud Forest In March 2006 and November 2007 I visited the Atlantic Cloud Forest in the Organ Mountains of eastern Brazil. The visits were organised through the Rio Atlantic Trust, a charity which aims to preserve the forest. David Miller bought 900 hectares of land in the early 1970s. As well as Situo Bacchus where we stayed, he also has another area of forest and house about one hour's journey by dirt track roads. Friends, conservationists and dedicated environmentalists now own the headwaters of the Flowers River, the Macae River, the Taquaraoca River and the Pirineus valley from 5,000 to 1,800 feet altitude. All this area is available for research. Five hundred years ago, prior to the colonists arriving, the Atlantic Forest stretched from Rio Grande do Norte in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul in the south east. It was often a thin line on the coastal plain but in other areas it stretched for more than eighty miles inland over the mountains. When Charles Darwin visited in 1832 he described the forests between Rio de Janeiro and Macae, 120 miles further north, as “A forest which in the grandeur of all its parts could not be exceeded”. Most remnants of original forest are now found on the steep scarp slopes. The rest of the forest has been plundered for its timber, cleared for growing sugar cane, coffee, cocoa and population pressure. Only about twenty per cent of the original forest remains due to its remoteness. These give a seed bank for forest to regenerate following fires etc giving areas of re-growth. There is one such area of 50 year re-growth forest on David's land. By 1974 a half timbered house had been built on a cleared plateau at around 4,000 feet of altitude. This could only be done after a dirt track of over one mile climbing 1,500 feet had been cleared from the gate of the property. Local fallen timber was used such as black cinnamon which never rots. Since then David, his wife Izabel and friend Richard Warren (Dick), who visits once or twice a year from the UK, have been researching the orchids from the Organ Mountains. Books have been published on these orchids in both Portuguese and English. Various university groups, botanic gardens, TV stations and researchers have visited to look at various aspects of the ecosystems. David Attenborough stayed there while making the Life of Birds series for the filming of the many and varied humming birds. While there, I spent many hours watching them at the feeders and on the plants in the garden, gingers and fuchsia as well as some familiar non-native plants from home. The project is financed by donations and by visits from birdwatchers, ecotourists such as me and books/pamphlets published. Being about eight miles from the nearest metalled road, when once you arrive at the house you are unlikely to see any shops/ signs of civilisation for the duration of your stay apart from perhaps one trip to the nearest large town of Nova Friburgo. The original settlers were Swiss, hence the name! Since my last visit solar powered electricity has been installed instead of the generator. Electricity was only available for a few hours in the evening and to light your way to bed, although there are candles at the ready in each room including the bathroom. Each day, after a splendid cooked breakfast, you set out for a walk in the forest, looking for plants, birds and anything else of interest. When a big tree falls down, it is a chance to see which epiphytes were growing at the top of it. Carlinhos clears the path with his machete as you go. The paths are overgrown in a few months. Progress is slow, which is a relief as the paths are steep and can be slippery. After overnight
rain when the humidity is almost 100%, you might spot small bright orange
frogs in the leaf litter. Some years ago Dick contacted the amphibian
expert at the Natural History Museum and, with professional instruction
as to how to capture and preserve specimens, he duly collected some on
his next visit to Brazil. The news came back from the Natural History
Museum that it was Brachycephalus epihippum or pumpkin toadlet,
a red data species, and that their last specimen had been brought back
by a Mr Charles Darwin in 1832! As it gets dark, the fireflies come out and the frogs start croaking along the veranda, looking for moths and other insects. Supper is served around eight and is often good, filling homemade soup with bread. Bedtime comes early as you are often up when it gets light at around 6.30am. This is a very different type of holiday, away from it all and one I enjoy very much. I am planning another trip hopefully in 2009 when Dick is organising his next small group! First
published in VISA 80A (Aug 2008) |