Atlantic Forest One of World’s Top Five Biodiversity Hotspots 
 
HARTFORD, Conn. – The International House (I-House), one of four new theme houses that opened this semester, kicked off its programming Tuesday, October 27 with a lecture by Binka Le Breton, an author and environmentalist who heads the Iracambi Rainforest Research Center in southeastern Brazil.

The center, a nonprofit organization whose volunteers include faculty and students from the United States, is devoted to protecting the Atlantic Rainforest, which is not as large or well known as the Amazon Rainforest but is home to 10,000 plant species and is about the size of Rhode Island. The Atlantic Rainforest covers nine counties in Brazil, a country that includes about half the land mass of South America and 10 percent of the world’s fresh water.

The research center is about five hours from Rio de Janeiro, and the rainforest includes the city of Sao Paolo, with a population of 17 million people. The name Iracambi comes from the Tupi Indian words “ira” (honey) and “cambi” (milk). Thus, said Le Breton, the organization’s objective is to see the Land of Milk and Honey restored to the way it was before trees were felled, the water was fouled, the soil was laid bare and many of the plant and animal species began to disappear.

The Atlantic Rainforest is also home to the wooly spider monkey, which is the most endangered primate in the world. In addition, the mangrove forests found in bays, estuaries and lagoons, and the xeromorphic coastal dune forests called the “restinga” are also under severe threat.

Recent figures published by the Brazilian Environmental Protection Institute show that of Brazils 69 severely endangered mammal species, 38 come from the Atlantic Rainforest. The same is true for amphibians – all 16 of them are endemic to the forest. Of the 160 endangered bird species, 118 come from the Atlantic Rainforest, as well as 13 of the 20 endangered reptile species.
“We are the front line of sustainable development,” she told an audience of mostly students. She defined sustainability as using “today’s resources in ways so that they will be available tomorrow.”

Le Breton said one of the challenges facing her group is teaching the indigenous people to farm the area without knocking down trees, destroying the soil and causing mud slides. Coffee is the major cash crop, providing the average household with about $5,000 annually, but growing coffee is “very hard on the soil.” Thus, explained Le Breton, the research center is helping the farmers find alternatives to coffee and yet still be able to have a livable income.

Some alternatives to growing coffee, said Le Breton, are cocoa and medicinal plants.  She also noted that it often doesn’t make sense to plant trees where they have been razed. “The best way to reforest is to leave it alone,” she said. “A forest is longing to come back” and will generally rejuvenate itself over time.

The research center’s basic strategy is to create partnerships – with college professionals, local schoolchildren, international volunteers and local farmers. Each year, dozens of people of all ages and backgrounds from as many as five continents spend anywhere from one to six months sharing their skills and learning new ones.

Among the projects that the volunteers work on are: improving the soil quality; conserving the water quality; increasing productivity; restoring the forests; generating income for the residents; and empowering the local residents.

According to the group’s Web site, in the 500 years since the first Europeans arrived in Brazil, 93 percent of the Atlantic Rainforest has been destroyed. “The people living near the forest face a daily struggle to survive, which leaves them with few resources and little incentive to conserve the forest. That is the challenge that Iracambi seeks to address.”

Although most people are familiar with the Amazon Rainforest, the Atlantic Rainforest is being destroyed at a more rapid pace. Indeed, the rate of forest clearance is not decreasing; it is accelerating.

Le Breton invited any Trinity students and professors who are interested to join her in the Iracambi’s efforts to save the Atlantic Rainforest.

Le Breton is not only an environmentalist, but a concert pianist and an author. She spoke at Trinity in March 2008 about her latest book, The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang. Sister Stang worked for 40 years to improve the lives of migrant peasants, farmer, and the poor in the Amazon frontier. The U.S.-born human rights activist was assassinated in February 2005 while working to protect the rights of family farmers threatened by illegal loggers.

Le Breton also has written Voices From the Amazon; A Land to Die For; Rainforest; and Trapped: Modern Day Slavery in the Amazon, which was awarded a prize by the World Hunger Year Organization of New York.

back to top