By:
Mario Osava - The Guatemala Times
Local authorities, former hunters and environmentalists have
joined forces to ensure the reproduction of Amazon turtles in Brazil’s
Lower Xingú River. But now they face the threat of the Belo Monte hydro
dam being built 40 km upstream.
BAJO XINGÚ, Brazil, Nov 21 (Tierramérica).- Brazilian Luiz Cardoso da
Costa was horrified as he watched the Amazonian manatee, a large docile
beast, bleeding out from the knife wound he had dealt it, yet greedily
gulping down grasses as if eating could somehow stave off death.
He was not expecting such an agonizingly drawn-out death. And it led him
to swear off the hunting of these aquatic mammals, also known as
seacows, which can reach sizes of up to half a ton of meat, fat and
hide, which fetch a high price on the black market.
He had
decided to use a knife and aim for the animal’s heart, because the
traditional method of killing Amazonian manatees (Trichechus inunguis)
seemed too cruel: sticking rods into their nostrils so that they die of
asphyxiation.
But what provoked Da Costa, formerly a "great
predator", to give up all forms of hunting forever was witnessing some
800 turtles being loaded onto a boat destined for Manaus, the central
metropolis of the Amazon region, in northwestern Brazil. On that
particular occasion, 13 years ago, he himself had sold "only around 20"
of those 800, but the sight of such a huge number of dead turtles
together shook him to the core.
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| Yellow Spotted River Turtle _ Podocnemis unifilis |
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His conversion was dramatic.
Today he is the heart and soul of environmental protection in Tabuleiro
do Embaubal, a group of more than 100 islands in the final stretch of
the Xingú River, in the eastern Amazon, whose beaches are the principal
known remaining breeding grounds of Amazon turtles.
Thousands
of females gather here in September and October, especially on the
beach in Juncal. They dig holes in the sand to serve as nests, lay their
eggs, cover them up with sand, and then return to the river.
The spectacle of sand flying through the air as multitudes of large
turtles dig their nests and lay their eggs could be a major tourist
attraction some day, believes Saloma Mendes de Oliveira, secretary of
the environment in the municipality of Senador José PorfÃrio, which
includes the Tabuleiro do Embaubal archipelago. As well as a source of
revenues, this would also promote the commitment of local communities to
the preservation of nature, she added.
For now, the large
gatherings of turtles makes them especially vulnerable to hunters, who
continue to take advantage of the high prices for turtle meat and eggs,
despite the fact that their capture is an environmental crime punished
with heavy fines and even prison sentences in some cases.
This is why efforts are being stepped up to monitor the beaches during
the "summer" or low-water period between June and November. Since
September, Da Costa has been jointed by another 20 rangers.
These are people hired by a company called Biota, created through an
agreement between the municipal government of Senador José PorfÃrio and
Norte Energia, the consortium awarded the contract to build the Belo
Monte hydroelectric power plant. Norte Energia is responsible for
monitoring and mitigating the impacts of the two dams it will build as
part of the project.
A good deal of controversy surrounds the
potential effects of this energy mega project in the Amazon region,
whose total capacity of 11,233 megawatts will be limited to 40%
effective capacity, on average, due to the sharp variation in the flow
of the Xingú River.
Norte Energia "hasn’t explained anything
to us," said Da Costa. His fear is that the river’s water levels will
drop, leading to drier "winters" or high-water periods on the Embaubal
islands. If the wetlands that are usually flooded during the high-water
period dry up as a consequence, this would deprive the turtles of their
source of plant food, which means they would be thinner and lay fewer
eggs, he explained.
However, this scenario is unlikely,
according to Juarez Pezzuti da Silva, a biologist from the Federal
University of Pará who is coordinating studies of reptiles in the Xingú
River basin.
The flow of the Lower Xingú, the 220-km stretch
of the Xingú River between Belo Monte and its mouth, is determined by
the Amazon River, which receives its waters along with those of the more
than 1,000 rivers in the Amazon Basin.
The Amazon River,
vastly larger and faster flowing than its tributary, operates as a
barrier to draining. This is why the water level of the Xingú would only
drop lower than normal if the same thing happened in the Amazon River.
In addition, both rivers are influenced by the tides of the Atlantic
Ocean, despite the fact that it is 400 km away.
This is
exactly what worries Oliveira: that the slower-flowing waters of the
Lower Xingú "will become more acidic" by accumulating more decomposed
organic matter, "affecting more susceptible species and reducing local
biodiversity."
Norte Energia denies the possibility of such an impact, but its
conclusions are not based on any serious foundations, she maintained.
The consortium only recognizes an "indirect influence" of the Belo
Monte project on areas that will not be flooded, but they will suffer
equally serious damage as the Volta Grande, the rocky 100-km stretch of
river whose waters will be partially diverted to feed one of the Belo
Monte dams, said Oliveira.
The dam will retain sediments that
are needed to maintain the beaches of the Embaubal islands, whose height
is crucial for the successful reproduction of Amazon turtles and other
species, noted Pezzuti.
The greatest losses of eggs before
they are hatched are due to increases in the river’s water level caused
by unusually strong rains.
But these are unpredictable and
uncontrollable enemies for rangers like Da Costa, who is responsible for
preventing human and natural predators from endangering the fauna of
the Tabuleiro do Embaubal.
Peasant farmer Manoel Nader
witnessed the turtles laying their eggs on the beaches of Embaubal when
he joined the group of rangers. “It was incredibly moving. I had never
had the chance to see it before," he said, despite having lived almost
all of his 48 years in the municipality.
But Nader confesses
that, like a number of his colleagues, he had "fished" a few turtles in
the past, for his own consumption, despite the prohibition. Now,
however, he is committed to his mission to protect them. Besides, he
added, "I prefer beef."
The main problem is not the local
fishermen, who are known and unarmed, capture only a small number of
animals to eat themselves, and could be persuaded to stop, said Da
Costa. The real threat is posed by traders "from outside" who supply
turtles to big cities like Manaus and Belém. The only way to stop them
is through police enforcement, he stressed.
The rangers in
Embaubal are civilians, employed by Biota or the municipal government,
like Da Costa, and have no law enforcement powers. The Brazilian
Environmental Institute (IBAMA), which has this authority, transferred
its responsibilities in the archipelago to a private foundation, which
gave up the work two and a half years ago.
This left Da Costa as a solitary defender of Embaubal, often without the
boats or fuel needed to travel among the islands, and sometimes a
powerless witness to the capture of huge numbers of turtles.
He has devoted ten of his 47 years to his mission of protecting the
turtles. He lives in the "Base", a large wooden house with an
observation post that allows him to monitor Juncal beach, 600 meters
away, during the daylight hours. He only rarely visits his family, a
wife and six children who live in the city. He earns very little and has
received numerous death threats. But he feels gratified.
