Botanist and landscaper Ricardo Cardim traveled 30,000 km of the Atlantic Forest in search of the last large trees in the forest; the results are in a book that tells a visual history of the biome, recently released in an expanded version.
In an interview for Mongabay Brasil website, Cardim tells what he saw after two years of expeditions and why he sees no reason to celebrate the recent increase in the vegetation areas of the Atlantic Forest.
The Atlantic Forest has been an obsession for botanist and landscaper Ricardo Cardim since he was a teenager, photographing the large trees of the biome that he found along the way. Little did he know that, years later, this search would become a book: Remanescentes da Mata Atlântica: As grandes árvores da floresta original e seus seguidores [Remnants of the Atlantic Forest: The Large Trees of the Original Forest and Their Remains], sold out in its first edition and now re-released in an expanded version, with 200 new images. It is, as he says, a “visual history of the Atlantic Forest”, which brings together historical photos of the forest that has already fallen and current images, taken by photographer Cássio Vasconcellos, of the last giant trees of the forest.
There are few, very few, of these trees left in a forest reduced to 12.4% of its original size, the result of five centuries serving as raw material for the formation of Brazil – from firewood to power mills and industries to wood for the construction of houses, railways and reinforced concrete molds. An irreparable loss for this biome with more than 20 thousand plant species – 3 thousand more than in the whole of Europe –, of which almost half are endemic.
Although it is the most devastated biome in the country, recent data has shown a slight reversal in deforestation: a 0.25% drop between 2005 and 2020, while in the same period the forest recovered 1 million hectares, an increase of 0.6%. In other words, the Atlantic Forest has grown. But, as Cardim warns in his book, and in this exclusive interview with Mongabay, there is no reason to celebrate. He is categorical in stating that the Atlantic Forest is “dying”, even in protected areas – generally young stretches, with secondary growth, ravaged by climate change, lack of diversity, absence of fauna, invasion of exotic species and the so-called edge effect, in which points of contact with deforested areas end up affecting the forest itself. All of this is even more alarming given the fact that 97% of Atlantic Forest fragments are less than 50 hectares in size.
In the interview, Cardim tells us what he saw after traveling 30,000 kilometers of forest in search of its giant trees – with the pink jequitibá of Camacã, in Bahia, at 58 meters tall, the largest living tree in the Atlantic Forest – and what he has done to help combat degradation: from spreading “pocket forests” throughout São Paulo (like the one growing on his roof) to carrying out a kind of guerrilla landscaping, convincing people to plant only native species.
Mongabay: What was the original Atlantic Forest like?
Ricardo Cardim: This is a question I’ve had since I was a child. I used to see those pictures by Rugendas and Debret and I would wonder: what was this forest like? And I thought it was a trivial question, a minor issue. Then, when I had the chance to join the Botany Department at the University of São Paulo, I realized that even the scientific literature knew little about what this Atlantic Forest was like before the invasion of the so-called civilization.
After I started researching this in depth in libraries and collections, talking, traveling a lot, speaking with scientists, in short, using all the means I could, I came to the conclusion that, yes, the forest we see today is a shadow of the ancestral forest seen by our ancestors. Warren Dean [author of the book A ferro e fogo: a história da devastação da Mata Atlântica brasileira] says that the current forest is “debris” from the original forest. It is a Taj Mahal that has been demolished; the rubble is still beautiful, but it is no longer the Taj Mahal. Today, much of the Atlantic Forest accessible to Brazilians is just a mistreated regrowth of one of the most magnificent forests on the planet.
Does the original Atlantic Forest still exist anywhere in Brazil?
It is rare to find large primary ancestral fragments, which are virgin forests. What you will find are pieces that have not been severely touched by man, or by his direct and harmful effects. Today, Atlantic Forest sites that still preserve stretches of primary forest are very, very rare. What you find most are examples of primary trees in the middle of secondary forest. It is difficult to find a continuous canopy of large trees. The forest today has become a huge patchwork quilt.
It is like our human body: if I were to be dismembered now, I would die in a few seconds. The Atlantic Forest, when it is dismembered, takes decades to centuries to die, but it dies too. It is an organism that functions as a whole. And, the way we have fragmented it today into millions of little pieces, what I see most are these severely diseased little pieces. Dying silently, despite being preserved as legal reserves, Permanent Preservation Areas, state and national parks. And I don’t see anyone taking action to prevent this.
Would a protected area, such as a conservation unit, also be under threat?
It is also dying. Our forest is a large degraded regrowth that has to fight against biological invasion, against edge effects, against changes in humidity in the climate. São Paulo used to be the city of drizzle, where is the drizzle? It disappeared with the heat island. Our interior is completely devastated. The semi-deciduous forest, which was the forest of perobas and jequitibás, was completely replaced by sugarcane. The humidity in the air has dropped, the wind patterns have changed, and biodiversity has changed. The pollinators and dispersers have also disappeared: we no longer have tapirs, or animals that eat seeds like jatobá.
What are the best preserved areas of primary forest today?
I found some in Linhares [Espírito Santo], where there is the Sooretama [Biological Reserve] and the Vale Natural Reserve. Some in the south of Bahia, such as the Itamaraju forest, in the Pau Brasil Settlement, which has the largest brazilwood tree alive today; it’s a stack of giant trees. In Santa Catarina, there is the Caçador Forest Reserve, which was created during the Getúlio Vargas era, where some primary areas with giant imbuias and araucarias were left. What we see is that they are small islands of primary forest and some large secondary fragments.
Because a forest is like a human population. You will find people who were born today and people who are dying at 100 years old. Today, the Atlantic Forest is as if an alien came here and saw a human population where there are only people up to 35 years old. Today you don’t see juçara palm dying of old age, or araucaria dying of natural causes. They are all young specimens.
And why is it important for a forest to have old trees?
They are essential for the ecological balance of the forest. Several scientific studies show that these monumental trees play roles that young trees cannot, such as conserving carbon, protecting other trees, creating the forest’s microclimate and sheltering biodiversity in their canopies through epiphytes, animals, pollinators, etc. It’s like a car engine: if you remove just one part, everything stops. And giant trees are a very important part of that engine. Centuries-old trees are not replaceable. They were born in completely different conditions than those on the planet today. A jequitibá tree in the Atlantic Forest will hardly reach the size and age that the trees reached when this place was still untouched by civilization.
What has changed in your perception since the expeditions you went on in search of the largest trees in the Atlantic Forest?
I had a completely mistaken idea of the forest. I thought the forest was better. I was very scared by the degradation. And I was even more scared by the complete lack of knowledge that people, and even authorities, have regarding the degradation of the forest. In other words, the forest is there being preserved only by the force of the law, but it is imploding due to the lack of biodiversity. Today, with all this experience of hours in the forest, of research in libraries, I feel that the Atlantic Forest is extremely vulnerable. And I say that it is dying. I think that our children will not see large trees easily.
Even though the area of native vegetation in the Atlantic Forest has expanded in recent years?
That doesn’t mean anything. A forest restoration is just the beginning of a forest. You create the conditions for the forest to return. You don’t create a forest, you create the conditions. In other words, you create a tree structure that will attract pollinators and dispersers so they can bring the seeds. But young forests, in addition to being extremely vulnerable, are generally very poor compared to an ancient forest. Of course it’s a good thing that we have more territory, but it’s by no means a consolation.
What was the hardest thing for you in this search? Finding a collection of images or a physical collection of the Atlantic Forest?
Both were very difficult. I believe the imagery was more difficult. Because the forest was not a topic for Brazilians at the time. The forest was just an obstacle to economic development, to human happiness. It was seen as something harmful, or at the very least unnecessary. So, the forest was photographed very little, mainly by Brazilians.
In the book, you talk about your dream of creating the Atlantic Forest Museum. What would this museum be like?
Brazil has many museums, but how is it that the country with the richest natural resources on the planet doesn’t even have a public collection on this subject? Doesn’t it have a single museum that shows Brazilians what this biodiversity was like before the arrival of Europe? How has it changed over the period related to our humanity? What remains in the 21st century? And what are the paths for the future? It became very clear to me, when I was putting together the historical collection for the book, that this collection has practically disappeared. The people who opened up the forest or photographed it in the 19th century have long since died. And their descendants have had no interest in preserving this material.
What are the plans for setting up this museum?
If we start like [Assis] Chateaubriand started MASP [Museu de Arte de São Paulo], on the ground floor of his Diários Associados building, if we could find a place where people are and could put this collection there, in an attractive, cool, modern way, so that schools can go, I would donate everything to this public collection.
Is this a project?
Yes. I can’t work towards this in a structured way. What I’ve been doing is trying to win the hearts of big businessmen. I won’t mention names, but in 2018, after the book was published, I managed to bring together three of the richest people in Brazil and another very important NGO to found the Museu da Mata Atlântica. It was going really well. It was going to happen. Then Bolsonaro won the election. There was a generalized withdrawal. And now I’ve returned to bring this subject to people who have capital and passion for the Mata Atlântica, but it hasn’t been fruitful.
And what stories do you think are still to be told about the Atlantic Forest?
I think an important story would be to tell that a large part of this forest survives in Brazilian cities in the form of our homes, buildings, warehouses, flooring, and furniture. It is impressive to see the quality of the wood in demolition sites in the city of São Paulo, for example. I have seen factories that had 90 cubic meters of hardwood that was almost a hundred years old, in perfect condition. And this wood has to be saved. Because it is a material that is not renewable. This has to be made clear. To have a peroba-rosa of this quality, like the one we have in these tiles from the 1940s, you need a tree that grew in an ancient forest that no longer exists.
What solution do you see to return to having an Atlantic Forest that is close to its original state?
The only way to save the Atlantic Forest would be through a reconnection policy. We need to connect the forest to the areas of human activity. Look, I’m not here to say “let’s expel humans”. We have to live together. Maybe in the future we’ll be more aware of also making room for biodiversity, but while we’re still in this phase of human evolution, we need to build a network of connections between these forests so that they can still have a genetic flow of animals and plants, and stay alive until a time when it’s more appropriate for them. But today I say that the Atlantic Forest is dying. I’ve walked 30 thousand kilometers in the forest and it’s desperate.
And how do you think the general population can help?
The first thing is to understand what is happening to the Atlantic Forest, which is protected by law, but its survival is not guaranteed. I wrote this book very carefully so that it would be a museum-book of the Atlantic Forest. It is not a book for scientists. If people read this book carefully, they will understand perfectly what is happening to our forest. Another thing is that you can already do a lot by using native plants in landscaping and tree planting.
How does landscaping with exotic species cause imbalance in the natural environment?
Today, it is one of the biggest problems. You have a subdivision and preserve 20 or so percent of APP [Permanent Preservation Area]. And it really is preserved. I work in the real estate market and I see that most business owners follow the law. But what happens? All that glamorous, fashionable landscaping comes along, disconnected from values other than decoration. A myriad of foreign plants arrive, and many behave like invaders. The problem is that the forests closest to humans, such as the Atlantic Forest, are the most degraded forests. When a forest is degraded, it loses its power. In these gaps, the door is opened for biological invasion. They are like viruses in the system. If I have a very strong body, these viruses will hardly be able to enter. If I am already hungry or exhausted, I will be vulnerable.
It’s the same thing with the Atlantic Forest: the exotic invasive plants that come from the landscaping of this condominium will infest this place, will occupy the space of the native plants and will start to cannibalize the native plants. They will fight for water, nutrients and light, basically. But the invasive plants have no natural enemies, and this gives them adaptive advantages. So, it is a super plant. These are highly advanced, complex chemical and biological wars. And they are happening without the layman noticing.
How can the devastation of the Atlantic Forest teach us about what is happening in the Amazon?
I end the book with that quote by [philosopher] George Santayana: “Those who do not know the past are condemned to repeat it.” Why? I include a photo from the 1940s of the Atlantic Forest, of a guy in a jalopy with an araucaria tree trunk behind him, and I include a photo of a computerized Volvo from 2015 with an Amazon tree trunk behind him. In other words, we continue doing exactly the same thing. What has changed today is technology, scale and capacity for predation. The Amazon is much larger than the Atlantic Forest, but our capacity for destruction is also much greater. The environmental, social and economic chaos that we have today in the Amazon seems to be due to something spontaneous, but it is not: it was orchestrated by private and government sectors in the 1970s and mid-1980s. And people have to understand that. Because today history is repeating itself.
