Winter 2009 - Lima to Montevideo - Birding Trip Report - Part 6 of many - Leaving Peru, Brazil Acre state Home » Forums » Birding » Trip Reports

XXX indicate not finished section.

The road from Puerto Maldonado to the Brazilian border is a work in
progress. Our bus had to be carried across the river by a ferry, but
the pillars for a great bridge were already in place. Brazil is very
interested in building a road from the Amazon through Peru to the west
coast. The obvious goal is to sell the riches of the Amazon to China,
and I am guessing in less than five years the road will be completely
finished.

The road is mostly farmland (read deforestation) but some sections are
greener and less disturbed than others, and there seems to be a
treeline in most places indicating hopefully there is forest away from
the road. The closer you get to the Brazilian border, away from
Maldonado, the greener it becomes, and I saw two Horned Screamers and
a Toco Toucan from the bus. I was sad to see in four places giant two
meter diameter ancient trees cut and either on trucks or apparently
ready to be loaded.

Across the border from Peru is the small town of Assis. Assis is
surrounded by hills with trees, and is connected to the undisturbed
buffer area between Peru and Brazil. It looked like a great place to
see birds. There is an ecological research station of some sort at
the top of a hill. But my job's special Internet requirements,
specifically a ssh connection, didn't work at the one Internet Cafe,
so we had to leave. I had no idea how hard it would be to find
another place as green as this one.

We continued to our first stop, Rio Branco, by way of the smaller city
of XXX. The drive made me want to cry. Everything is cut or burnt. There is
only a tree line in the distant horizon, and I eventually concluded it was an
optical illusion. Everywhere you can see stumps of burnt trees. I
would soon learn that 'quemadas', or fires, were just they way things
were done everywhere in Brazil, and not just something happening in a
remote section of the Amazon. We found a hotel close to the bus terminal.
A nine year old boy was watching pornigraphy in a room adjacent to the lobby,
and no one seemed too concerned.

I did see a poster protesting the fires in a restaurant, as well as one
which said 'Chico Mendez lives'. Chico Mendez was a activist for the
preservation of the rain forst, and waas killed by business interests
in 1988. Rio Branco, home of Chico Mendez, is, for all practical
purposes, a treeless parkless city. One exception is Chico Mendez
Park, a small section of preserved primary forest along with a zoo. I
went on the weekend and was afraid of typical crowds of people in
Latin America, but the zoo was not too busy, and the walking trails
were almost totally empty. I was starting to see the complete
disconnect Brazilians seem to have with their natural environment.

Two days of walking the trails in the park turned up two
Crimson-crested Woodpeckers and a Reddish Hermit. A few other bird
sounds and sightings, but generally not much to see. The back section
of the property had apparently been burnt, and only weeds were
growing. A common Striated Heron was looking for food in a small
puddle. Outside the park, about 20 Black Vultures were feeding
on a dead dog on the side of the road.

We got backstage access to the zoo's animal hospital and were happy to see a
focus on rehabilitation. Two hawks were in a long caged area where
they were learning to fly and hunt. The caretaker comiserated
with us about the environmemntal destruction we had seen so far in the
state of Acre.

The Chico Mendez Park literature claims 50% of the state of Acre is
protected. XXX Further research is needed. I know in the southeast
of Brazil 97% of the forest has been cut, so why was I so devestated by
what I saw in the state of Acre? I think because there were so few
trees standing, and the burning is so obvious, while in the east there
are small groups of trees here and there.

That night on the news I saw a program where the state of Manaus XXX,
the last stronghold of primary rain forest, was petitioning the
government to become like the state of Acre, with protected areas and
free reign in all others. Currently a permit is needed to develop
(i.e. burn) any piece of undeveloped land.

Rio Branco has one other park, commemorating the 'XXX', the people who
wanted to live in harmony with the environment, but were conquered by
the Brazilians. Even in this park, almost all of the trees except the
rubber trees were cut, and the rubber trees apparently were still
being tapped for rubber. Made sense, why leave a tree that didn't
serve some purpose? The Black-billed Thrush is common here, and behind
the park is a giant weed field demonstrating the nutrient-poor Amazon
soil's inability to regenerate life.

We decided to leave the tree-hating people of the state of Acre
behind, and headed towards Porto Velho, then next city along the path
to Uruguay.