TEKOHAW, Brazil (AP) 鈥 At dawn in this small Amazonian village in Brazil's Para state, flocks of noisy green parrots soar overhead as children run and play between wooden homes, kicking up sandy soil 鈥 in places white and bare as a beach.
The ground reveals one of the paradoxes of the rainforest.
Renowned for its beauty and biodiversity, the life-giving nutrients of the forest are mostly stored in the trees and other plants, not the soil.
When the forest is cleared 鈥 for a cattle ranch, soybean field or even a small cluster of village homes 鈥 the combination of scorching Amazonian sun and intense rainfall combine to leach scarce nutrients from the soil in just a few years, leaving behind surprisingly barren ground. Soil rich in organic matter is black, but here it鈥檚 sometimes the color of bone. Some ecologists call it a 鈥渨et desert.鈥
This makes it difficult to sustain agriculture in one place.
And in a region with in Brazil, people with few options have often just abandoned degraded fields and cleared more forest 鈥 hastening the cycle of deforestation that and the millions of species unique to the Amazon.
鈥淭he biodiversity is rich, but so many people are very poor,鈥 said Judson Ferreira Valentim, a soil scientist for the government鈥檚 agricultural research agency, Embrapa. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 protect the rainforest without addressing the poverty of the Amazon.鈥
___
EDITORS鈥 NOTE 鈥 This story is part of , an AP series that examines the question: Can we feed this growing world without starving the planet? To see the full project, visit
___
The only way to meet both goals is to find more paths for people to make a living in the Amazon without further destroying the rainforest, say experts who have long worked in the region. That means using already deforested land more efficiently 鈥 to reduce pressure to clear more forest 鈥 as well as supporting businesses that sustainably harvest native products such as a莽a铆 and cacao.
Valentim, who works in the northern state of Acre, where he鈥檚 lived for four decades, points from the window of his truck to : some are patches of bare soil or red clay; some are overgrown with dark shrubby weeds.
The scale of abandoned farm and pastureland across the Brazilian Amazon is massive 鈥 covering an area larger than Portugal, according to an AP analysis of data derived from satellite imagery by the Brazilian .
Other researchers estimate that ranching, which accounts for between 60% and 80% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, is as it should be, and that increasing the efficiency on the same land area would more than meet increasing demands for meat through 2040. Brazil is a major exporter of beef to global markets, and currently 43% of Brazil鈥檚 cattle are raised within the Amazon region, according to an AP analysis .
鈥淵ou have to enforce laws against deforestation, but that鈥檚 only part of the solution. You also have to give people alternatives鈥 to improve their livelihoods, said Rachael Garrett, a researcher at Cambridge University who鈥檚 conducted fieldwork in the Amazon since 2006.
There are 28 million people living in just Brazil鈥檚 portion of the Amazon 鈥 including Indigenous farmers, ranchers who migrated from other parts of the country, and settlers forcibly relocated decades ago when the government took their old land for infrastructure projects like the Itaip煤 Dam.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 ignore that millions of people are living there,鈥 Garrett said. 鈥淭he more their needs are ignored, the worse some problems get.鈥
SUPERCHARGING THE SOIL
Nearly everyone in the Amazon starts work early, aiming to finish before the worst of the midday sun. Valentim is on the road at dawn to visit families who鈥檝e tried new techniques to squeeze more production out of the soil.
Dairy farmer Edson Cesar de Oliveira waves from his porch. The son of a subsistence rubber tapper from Acre, his family lives in a small wooden home that he built himself.
Chickens cluck in the yard, and clothes flap on a laundry line. Cleonice Farina de Oliveira, his wife, offers black espresso and slices of homemade cheese to visitors.
For the past few years, the family has been experimenting with planting a native legume called forage peanuts alongside grass in their pastures. This plant attracts bacteria to its roots that can pull nitrogen from the air into the ground, essentially acting as a low-cost natural fertilizer.
While grass-only pastures may degrade in just two or three years, adding legumes may extend the soil鈥檚 fertility to ten or more years. It鈥檚 also higher in protein than grass alone, which helps livestock grow faster. And it鈥檚 easier than grass alone on the cattle鈥檚 digestive system, reducing their methane emissions.
De Oliveria, who said he can鈥檛 afford chemical fertilizers, has noticed that pastures with forage peanuts don鈥檛 turn as yellow during the dry season. And cows that graze there for at least two nights produce about 20% more milk, he said.
That increases the amount of cheese that the family can make to sell in local markets.
鈥淲e always sell out of our cheese,鈥 said Cleonice, as she pulled on rubber boots to go milk the cows.
After coaxing the first three animals into wooden pens, she, her husband and their 22-year-old son Thalisson each took a milking station. The family provides all the labor on their small farm.
On another day, Valentim visits a larger family ranch owned by Luiz Augusto Ribeiro do Valle. Do Valle said the last year he cleared new forest to expand the ranch was 2007. Now he鈥檚 focused on improving productivity. In addition to planting forage peanuts in his pastures, he has changed the way he grazes cattle.
Holding up a detailed map of his ranch, he said, 鈥淵ou take a large pasture, divide it into smaller areas and rotate where the cattle graze.鈥 The goal is to keep cattle always feeding on new grass, while other areas regrow 鈥 the new growth is more nutritious and easier to digest.
Cows bray in the distance and dragonflies buzz at his feet as he strolls up a hill, periodically bending to inspect the grass. 鈥淵ou have to keep checking the plan against the reality on the ground,鈥 he said. By combining rotational grazing and forage peanuts, he said he can keep between 20% and 40% more cattle on the same amount of land.
HARD REALITIES OF THE RAINFOREST
But even these simple innovations can be hard for some poor ranchers in the Amazon to implement.
In a region with poor roads and spotty internet and cell-phone service, it鈥檚 hard to spread information about better farming practices.
Many small ranchers can鈥檛 afford fertilizers, tractors and other modern farming supplies. And drug trafficking, illegal mining and violence also make it difficult to work on the Amazon frontier.
Of the nearly 1 million farms in Brazil鈥檚 Amazon region, 83% are small family farms and ranches, according to government figures. Many operate on shoestring budgets.
As President Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva鈥檚 government ramps up enforcement of environmental laws 鈥 reversing the policies of Jair Bolsonaro and so far curbing overall deforestation by 22%, according to Brazil's national space agency 鈥 some experts say it鈥檚 small-scale ranchers and farmers that are still most at risk for clearing rainforest.
鈥淲hen you have fewer choices, you take bigger risks,鈥 said Ren茅 Poccard-Chapuis, an agronomist at the French agricultural research agency CIRAD who has worked in the region for three decades.
Like Valentim, he鈥檚 focused on helping farmers and ranchers 鈥 especially small operators 鈥 find low-cost solutions to improve their livelihoods.
In Para state, in the eastern Amazon, Lucas dos Santos has a very modest ranch. He can鈥檛 afford a horse to ride or hired labor, but moves the cattle between pastures himself, holding a cattle prod in one hand.
He said he was unable to afford the price of new fencing to start rotational grazing for his small herd of 22 cattle. Then CIRAD researchers showed him how to use branch clippings from native trees in place of commercial fence posts.
The clippings, taken from trees on his property, put out new roots quickly, so he only had to pay for wires 鈥 and can now rotate his cattle.
TASTES OF THE RAINFOREST: A脟A脥 AND CACAO
C茅sar De Mendes is trying to grow a business in the rainforest without cutting any trees at all.
Walking through the forest along a tributary of the Amazon in Par谩, he points out bright yellow fruits that sprout, sometimes in pairs, from the middle of tree trunks.
It鈥檚 cacao, the plant responsible for one of the world鈥檚 great joys: chocolate.
His company, De Mendes Chocolates, uses cacao harvested from virgin rainforest.
He鈥檚 hoping customers will appreciate how different microclimates and soil conditions across the region subtly impact the flavor of the chocolate.
鈥淵ou can taste the different environments,鈥 he said.
His small business sells mostly to upscale groceries and tourist shops. One of six employees at this location, Neilanny Maia, fulfills online orders by hand, devoting a room of her home to storing seed bags and finished chocolate bars.
The idea of harvesting rainforest fruits is simple, but scaling up a sustainable business isn鈥檛 always easy.
Just getting fruit to market before it spoils can be a huge challenge. Last year during the rainy season, one road was closed for 90 days. One solution is to build small processing factories near the forest, as the longstanding agricultural collective Projeto RECA has done in Brazil鈥檚 northern state of Rond么nia.
One afternoon, light breaks through the canopy of virgin rainforest as 37-year-old a莽a铆 picker Edson Polinario tilts his head backward, squinting, looking for promising trees.
Once he鈥檚 chosen his target, he propels himself up the narrow palm trunk, using bands to grip the trunk securely.
With a stroke of his machete, he slices off a rack of a莽a铆 berries that resemble dark beads on a chandelier.
Then he slides down the trunk like it鈥檚 a firepole.
Every day a worker comes to Polinario鈥檚 house to collect bags of a莽a铆, then hauls them back to Projeto RECA鈥檚 campus on the back of a motorcycle.
A莽a铆 berries spoil quickly and are practically worthless if not processed and frozen within two days.
At the factory, they鈥檙e transformed into jams, syrups and frozen fruit pulp, ready to be shipped to supermarkets.
But there are other challenges to locating the business on the Amazon frontier. If factory equipment breaks, the team must dissemble it and drive parts several hours for repair. 鈥淲e are too far from the big cities鈥 for on-site maintenance, said Hamilton Condack de Oliveira, the president of the collective of about 200 households.
But still, they鈥檝e managed to survive since the collective was founded in 1989.
They harvest from both virgin rainforest and agroforests planted on abandoned pastureland. Planting an agroforest 鈥 essentially a large orchard of mixed native tree species 鈥 doesn鈥檛 aid biodiversity and climate as much as simply retaining old-growth forest, but it鈥檚 much better than tending pasture or monoculture row crops.
鈥淧eople will visit and say, 鈥極h that鈥檚 beautiful,鈥 but it鈥檚 a lot of work,鈥 he said.
鈥楾HE FOREST SUSTAINS US鈥
The impacts of climate change are already being felt locally in the Amazon region, forcing other adaptations.
For as long as their stories tell, the Indigenous Temb茅 people of Tekohaw village have used fire to clear small plots of land to grow cassava, beans and other subsistence crops. After farming for three years, they鈥檇 clear new land.
Because their plots were small, the overall impact on the forest was minimal. But now the village chief wants to find other ways to manage the soil鈥檚 fertility.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to use fire anymore in the forest because we can lose control of the fire, and it can burn the forest,鈥 said Kapara铆 Temb茅. This wasn鈥檛 always as much of a risk, he said. But deforestation from ranching and soy farming for animal feed across the state of Par谩 has removed moisture from the air, and now the dry season has become longer and drier 鈥 heightening the risk of uncontrolled wildfires.
鈥淲e want to improve agriculture here, in one specific place, not keep burning fields and pushing nature back,鈥 he said, setting his hoe on the ground and mopping the sweat from his brow. 鈥淲e need to nurture the soil.鈥
Earlier this year, the villagers treated the field with a powder made from grinding up limestone . It鈥檚 a technique to reduce the natural acidity of the Amazonian soil. Today Temb茅 and two other men are planting a different legume, called the pigeon pea, to add nitrogen to the soil.
Later, as he walked back to the village, Temb茅 heard the raucous shriek of a scarlet macaw.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a reminder of where I am,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he forest sustains us, the animals, the plants 鈥 we want to protect it.鈥
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute鈥檚 Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
