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----- Original Message -----
From:
ted.held@us.henkel.com
To: Discussion of aroids
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 7:34
AM
Subject: [Aroid-l] Philodendron
spiritus-sancti and Brazilian Conservation
Well, it appears my attempt to
submit this with the attachment did not work. So if anyone would like to read
the described article, they will have to contact me off-list:
ted.held@us.henkel.com
This posting refers to an article
from Science magazine. It is 0.5 MEGs as an Acrobat file. The article appeared
in the 23 February 2007 edition and describes some efforts by the government
of Brazil to reforest sections of the Atlantic rainforest. It looks like they
anticipate eventual money needs on the order of $2 billion US. But the article
meshes with the discussions here on conserving habitat and plants of P.
spiritus-sancti on a private reserve and the idea of using revenues from plant
sales to assist. It looks like the
plan described in the article may include such a plant sale both as part of
the funding and as part of the economic trade-off for taking farmer land away
from normal crops. If this is true it means that the Brazilian government may
be amenable to the idea of tapping into the interest of plant enthusiasts for
specimens to further a cause which they both seem to share.
In any event, the ideas discussed in the
article are interesting to me because they hint at the complexity of the
restoration effort. Those of us that live in the species-impoverished northern
latitudes need to be reminded about how many species are represented in a
tropical rainforest and how many are probably needed to keep it going. And the
article discusses some efforts that have failed since restoration is not just
a matter of hiring a couple of college students to plant a few thousand
saplings. The other reason I submit this is because it is a glimpse of
optimism, refreshing to a person like me who is fatigued by endless
apocalyptic jeremiads with which our news is filled. Fingers crossed.
At the same time it is obvious that there
is a possible contradiction here with the proposed expansion of ethanol
production from Brazil. One of the target restoration areas happens to be
prime sugarcane cropland. OK,
enough windiness. Commentaries aside, this does relate to aroids and their
conservation. Ted
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