THE RESTORATION DIAGNOSTIC Case Example: Tijuca National Park, Brazil
KATHLEEN BUCKINGHAM AND CRAIG HANSON
WRI.ORG
Case Study: Tijuca National Park, Brazil 1 CASE EXAMPLE: TIJUCA NATIONAL PARK, BRAZIL
VENEZUELA GUYANA RIO DE JANEIRO SUMMARY SURINAME COLOMBIA Located in the middle of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Tijuca National Park is currently one of the largest urban forests in the world Tijuca National (Drummond 1996). But in the mid-1800s, the area that is now the Park
park was degraded and devoid of its original forest cover as a result 0 10 km of agriculture—mainly coffee plantations. Efforts to restore tropical BRAZIL forests to the area first began in the early 1860s. In 1861, Brazil established Tijuca Forest and Paineiras as the first conservation area PERU in the country. The next 15 years saw 68,000 trees planted, with Bra silia another 20,000 during the subsequent 10 years (Rodrigues et al. BOLIVIA 2007). Efforts to reintroduce additional native animal species took place in the 20th century. And in 1961, the Brazilian government PARAGUAY RIO DE JANEIRO designated the area as a national park (Freitas et al. 2006). CHILE 0 1,000km The restoration of Tijuca has had a number of positive impacts, ARGENTINA including (Freitas et al. 2006): TIME PERIOD: 1860s to present Improved water supplies for Rio ▪▪ AREA RESTORED: 3,200 hectares Improved air quality for Rio ▪▪ TYPE OF RESTORATION: Active and ▪▪ Recreational opportunities for Rio’s citizens and visitors passive restoration Reintroduction of twenty-five bird species, seven mammal ▪▪ species, and one reptile species
Habitat for forty-nine species of mammals, of which eleven ▪▪ are on regional threatened species red lists and four are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
TIJUCA NATIONAL PARK, BRAZIL TIJUCA NATIONAL PARK, BRAZIL
2 WRI.org WHICH FEATURES AND KEY SUCCESS Enable FACTORS WERE EXHIBITED? Several enabling conditions were in place to facilitate restoration in Tijuca, namely: Restoration in Tijuca exhibited several of the features and key success factors of forest landscape restoration. ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS. The steep slopes of the Tijuca ▪▪ region were conducive to abandonment of agriculture and Motivate grazing. Pockets of forest remnants in the hills allowed the natural recolonization of old fields by native tree species, rapidly Factors motivating restoration included: transforming the landscape (Oliveria 2007). For the planted forests (which comprised just 200 hectares of the restored area), ▪▪ CRISIS EVENTS. Starting in the 16th century, the Atlantic seedlings of many native tree species were readily available from rainforests surrounding Rio de Janeiro were gradually cleared the Paineiras Forest, the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, to make way for sugarcane fields, coffee plantations, pastures, and a farm in Guaratiba owned by Manuel Gomes Archer, the and charcoal production. By the 19th century, reduced vegeta- manager of the Tijuca Forest. In the Paineiras Forest and in tion combined with population growth and lower-than-average Guaratiba, however, the seedlings had to be collected from inside rainfall levels resulted in a crisis for the city’s water supply. Rio the remains of native tree stands, an activity that demanded a experienced severe droughts in 1824, 1829, 1833, and 1844 and lot of time and physical effort (Drummond 1988). Fire is the milder water shortages during the intervening years. Deprived of biggest disturbance threat to Tijuca (Carreiro and Zipperer 2011). forest cover, small streams were drying up during the winter and To address this problem, the Brazilian government banned sky the local streams1 were experiencing flash floods during the rainy lanterns1 in 1998; Law 9605, Article 42 identified releasing sky season. By the mid-1800s, these water crises threatened the lanterns as an environmental crime, punishable by up to three growth of Rio de Janeiro, which was then the nation’s capital and years in prison (Folha de S.Paulo 2008). largest city (Drummond 1996). ▪▪ POLICY CONDITIONS. Starting in the mid-1800s, national ▪▪ BENEFITS. Restoration was expected to provide environmen- and local government agencies enacted laws, regulations, and tal benefits that, in turn, would address the water crises and management plans to preserve remnants of the original forest improve human well-being. Many expectations were realized. in Tijuca, restore degraded areas, and manage the watershed In particular, restoration of vegetation modulated water flows, (Drummond 1996). slowing runoff during rainy seasons and retaining water during drier seasons. It also increased soil moisture, reduced erosion, and created recreational opportunities for citizens (Freitas et Implement al. 2006). Restoration also ended up providing social benefits. Some capacity and resources were in place that helped with Tijuca National Park, with its forest-covered mountains towering implementation, including: over the city, has become an iconic image of Rio. As such it invokes a lot of national pride and is part of local and national LEADERSHIP. The Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II, pushed the identity. This cultural benefit has continued to motivate Brazilians ▪▪ idea of managing upstream landscapes to improve downstream to sustain the restoration of this area. water supplies. Working under the Emperor’s command, Manuel Gomes Archer became the first manager of Tijuca Forest, respon- ▪▪ AWARENESS. National and global culture has influenced the sible for the basic groundwork for restoring the landscape and development and sustainability of restoration activities. From maintaining the watershed. After his first fifteen years as man- the early 1900s to 1950s, many writings by influential conserva- ager, Archer recommended to the government that agronomic tion leaders influenced attitudes toward recognizing Brazilian schools start including forest science to improve the understand- 2 3 restoration and conservation potential. Sampaio, Corrêa, Mello ing of the importance of forest-based ecosystem services such 4 5 Leitão, and Hoehne opened the way for modern conservation as water and soil conservation (Rodrigues et al. 2007). In 1877, efforts (intellectual, institutional, and scientific) that are now a Lieutenant-Colonel Gastão de Escragnolle succeeded Archer. part of the public agenda and popular consciousness. Some Like Archer, Escragnolle had close ties with the Imperial Court uthors wanted nature to be protected so that it could remain a and Rio’s nobility, and thus had sufficient political support and central part of the Brazilian national identity (Drummond 1996). funds to hire more workers for restoration (Drummond 1996). Escragnolle concentrated on improving infrastructure within the park, which eventually turned Tijuca Forest into an area appropri- ate for public recreation (Freitas et al. 2006).
Case Study: Tijuca National Park, Brazil 3 KNOWLEDGE. Archer, his team, and his successors received LOOKING FORWARD ▪▪ technical assistance from the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. In addition, Archer had second-hand information about forest Restoration in Tijuca exhibited some characteristics that were a planting and management practices from Germany, possibly product of the social and political context at the time, but are not through personal contacts and printed sources circulating in the good practices for forest landscape restoration today. First, in creat- Imperial Court (Drummond 1996). ing the Tijuca Forest, Emperor Pedro II expropriated farmland from local people in 1861 (Correa de Lima et al. 2004). Second, Archer ▪▪ TECHNICAL DESIGN. The restoration plan had a good used about ten slaves to assist with tree planting and other activities technical design. Over the first ten-year period of restoration during the 1860s (Drummond 1988). Forest landscape restoration (1862–72), planted trees had an 80 percent survival rate due to in the 21st century needs to respect human rights and follow best this expertise (Drummond 1996). practices such as free, prior, and informed consent (Hertz et al. 2007). FEEDBACK. Effective performance monitoring and evalua- ▪▪ tion is in place. For example, fire is a current threat to Tijuca National Park. Data on fire events in the national park have been recorded since 1991 (Matos et al. 2002). Initially, management responses focused only on fire suppression, since fire-disturbed sites would be subsequently invaded by exotic grasses, creating emergent exotic communities within the native forest. Recently, park management has been addressing both fire suppression and declining forest condition through the creation of plant com- munities with low flammability along the boundaries of forest stands. Tijuca has therefore demonstrated adaptive management for maintaining restoration (Carreiro and Zipperer 2011).
4 WRI.org REFERENCES ENDNOTES Carreiro, M.M., and W.C. Zipperer. 2011. “Co-adapting societal and 1. There is no major river in Rio de Janeiro. Consequently, since ecological interactions following large disturbances in urban park the city’s founding in 1565, the small but permanent streams woodlands.” Australian Ecology 36: 904–915. running down the mountains of Tijuca were a major source of drinking water for the city (Carreiro and Zipperer 2011). Correa de Lima, J.P., M. dos Santos Guapyassu, and G.H. Platais. 2004. “Restoration in Brazil’s Atlantic Rain Forest.” In J. A. Stanturf 2. A member of the commission that drafted Brazil’s first Forest and P. Madsen, eds. Restoration of Boreal and Temperate Forests. Code (1934) (Franco and Drummond 2008). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. 3. Wrote about the need to restore the land with native species, Drummond, J. 1996. “The Garden in the Machine: An Environmental not eucalyptus, which were involved in the first large History of Brazil’s Tijuca Forest.” Environmental History 1 (1): restoration project in Brazil. 83–105. 4. Mello Leitão was also a pioneer in Brazil in the use of the radio Folha de S.Paulo. 2008. “Balao cai no aeroporto de Cumbica; to broadcast his knowledge and ideals in biology and nature Infraero faz campanha de prevenção.” Accessible at:
Franco, J.L., and J.A. Drummond. 2008. “Wilderness and the 5. Dedicated his entire career to the examination of Brazilian Brazilian Mind: Nation and Nature in Brazil from the 1920s to the flora. His career was linked to the rise of the Instituto de 1940s.” Environmental History 13 (4): 724–750. Botânica do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Botanical Institute) (Franco and Drummond 2008). Freitas, S.R., C.L. Neves, and P. Chernicharo. 2006. “Tijuca National Park: Two pioneering restoration initiatives in Atlantic Forest in 6. A sky lantern or Chinese lantern is a small hot air balloon Southeastern Brazil.” Brazil Journal of Biology 66 (4) 975–982. made of paper, with an opening at the bottom where a small fire is suspended. Hertz, S., A. La Vina, and J. Sohn. 2007. Development without Conflict: The Business Case for Community Consent. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.
Matos, D.M.S., C.J.F. Santos, and D.D.R. Chevalier. 2002. “Fire and restoration of the largest urban forest of the world in Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil.” Urban Ecosystems 6: 151–161.
Oliveira, R.R. 2007. “Terras cançadas e mattas estragadas: uma pequena história ambiental das chuvas e florestas do Rio de Janeiro.” In V.R. Gari, M.B. Schlee, R. Andrade, and M.A. Dias, eds. Águas Urbanas: A Regeneração Ambiental como Campo Disciplinar Integrado. v.1. FAPERJ/PROARQ-FAUUFRJ/Minister Editora, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro. ISBN 978-85-88341-10-4.
Rodrigues, R.R., S.V. Martins, and S. Gandolfi. 2007.High Diversity Forest Restoration in Degraded Areas: Methods and Projects in Brazil. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
Case Study: Tijuca National Park, Brazil 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS WRI thanks the following for reviewing and giving helpful sugges- tions for improving this case study:
Pedro Brancalion (University of Sao Paulo), Jose Augusto Drum- mond (University of Brasilia), Simone Freitas (Universidade Federal do ABC), Chris Reij (WRI), Caleb Stevens (WRI), and Ruth Nogueron (WRI).
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Kathleen Buckingham is a Research Associate for the Global Restoration Initiative in the Forests Program at WRI. Contact: [email protected]
Craig Hanson is the Global Director of the Food, Forests & Water Programs at WRI. Contact: [email protected]
ABOUT WRI World Resources Institute is a global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity and human well-being.
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