Day 239 - 23 Apr 96 - Page 27
1 actually clear 50 percent of the land itself. So, in
2 theory, there should still be a considerable area of this
3 canopy forest left as blocks of 50 percent of the
4 ranchland.
5
6 In practice, what tends to happen, and I can say this with
7 some regret because I have seen it in many parts and it is
8 a -- it makes a frightful mess -- is that gradually this 50
9 percent is eroded and incorporated into the rest of the
10 ranchland because it is very poorly maintained.
11
12 So, what you often get is an area which started off with a
13 substantial chunk of forest but then this continuous
14 process of deforestation gradually reducing your ranch,
15 which is 50 percent forest and 50 percent ranchland, to 100
16 percent ranchland, and it is a process I have seen in
17 several different parts of Brazil. I have no reason to
18 assume that that is not going on around Sinop.
19
20 So, what I would imagine you would get in the Sinop area
21 itself is still areas of this canopy forest. You will
22 still see some of it there because in that part of Mato
23 Grosso it is by no means a complete process of
24 deforestation and sequestering in the form of ranching that
25 has taken place and there are a lot of areas which are
26 still very wild. But you will see these stands gradually
27 being eroded as time goes by.
28
29 Q. What about the area around Pontas e Lacerda on the west
30 there?
31 A. OK. As you will see, that is a very complex area.
32 It is -- quite a lot of that is what is called, or it
33 borders on what is called in Brazil "the Pantanal" or
34 Pantanal type vegetation and that is really marshland. It
35 is wet grassland. It is things like that but, as you see,
36 mixed in with bits of other vegetation types.
37
38 If I can just translate some of these keys. We have got --
39 I am bit confused about all the different colours -- green
40 actually. I think -- yes, that is right. That is dense
41 woodland in a marshy or what is called oligotrophic, i.e.
42 few available nutrients, marshy, grassy area. So that,
43 corresponding to my experience, would be clumps of woodland
44 surrounded by marshland, surrounded by grass; some more
45 substantial stands of woodland could be called forest. You
46 have got savanna and seasonal forest in there as well, CS,
47 and submontane, deciduous seasonal forest. You see that
48 little band just to the southeast of Pontas e Lacerda
49 labelled CS. So that is your seasonal forest.
50
51 So, as you see, it is an incredibly complex area of
52 vegetation and, as I say, the map does not even convey the
53 complexity there. Along the rivers you will have, just as
54 elsewhere, the standard gallery forest which is composed
55 really again of complexity, but you will get your high
56 canopy trees going up often well over 100 feet with a
57 series of shorter trees underneath them, a sort of
58 staggered canopy effect, and in particular around the
59 rivers themselves you get these palm trees which are a very
60 important part of the indigenous economy.
