Remember that scene in the movie Interstellar where the baseball game is called off because of an approaching dust storm? It was a horrifying scene, something people who live in humid forested environments should not be able to comprehend, much less witness first hand.

But people in the northwestern region of the state of São Paulo, an area that should be forested and humid, learned first hand the horror of a dust storm. This is a warning. And it won’t be limited to one state or one region.

I live a two day hard drive from the northwestern areas of São Paulo. But this scene terrified me. Our weather here comes from there. The rain that falls here comes from the river of humid air moving up from the southwest. If all that moves up here is dust, how will we survive?

We all know the culprit is unsustainable agricultural practices. Deforestation in order to create pasture land as well as soy (for the primary purpose of animal feed) is not so slowly destroying the environment. The ultimate result will be desertification, a process which can happen with terrifying speed.

Agricultural practices here are not so different. Pasture, bananas, and sun grown coffee predominate in this area. But there is one important difference: this state, Espírito Santo, is mountainous. Clear cut trees to make pasture on a mountainside results in immediate erosion. Top soil washes away in the heavy rains that are typical and, due to increasingly warmer air, more frequent. Without tree roots to hold the soil and moisture in place, the top soil washes away and the deteriorated soil is unable to hold moisture.

Bananas were introduced into this area about 30 years ago. Entire mountainsides are often planted in bananas. It provides a decent income for the small farmers of the area, but it is having devastating results on the soil. Bananas create dense mats of roots that not only suck up soil moisture, but inhibit the percolation of water. Excess water, unable to penetrate the roots, just washes down the mountainsides. What little moisture is able to penetrate the soil is sucked up by the plant. In lower flatter areas bananas are great. But on these mountainsides, they aren’t very helpful.

The coffee grown in this area is Conillon, not a particularly good coffee. More bitter and with significantly more caffeine than arabica, it is also able to grow in more extreme environments. It will tolerate full sun and drier conditions than arabica. It will grow in shade which may result in a slightly better quality coffee, but the difference in price is negligible. It doesn’t compensate sufficiently to justify the practice. So people just clear cut and fill in with conillon coffee. This results in a decrease in wildlife habitat, drier soil (which conillon can tolerate), and decreased soil nutrition.

I understand the local farmers. Coffee, cows, and bananas allowed them to move from subsistence agriculture to something much more profitable. And we all need money.

But it isn’t sustainable. It won’t be able to provide any economic security for their children who are mostly leaving anyway, moving to the surrounding cities or emigrating to Portugal or Italy. Some are experimenting with new or different items (avocados, litchi, rubber) but they aren’t always able to find support or funding. Discouraged, they revert to the standbys of coffee, bananas, and cattle.

If you talk to them about the changing climate, they scoff. “My grandfather clearcut and never had a problem. My grandfather planted bananas and never had a problem [not true, as bananas have only been cultivated in this area for about 30 years]. My grandfather….” As if the world today were exactly the same as it was in their grandfather’s time, as if, as children playing in the streams, they had any idea what their grandfathers were actually doing. “Besides,” the add, “God will not let this area suffer. We’re God fearing people and He will take care of us.” They say this even as they try to deal with reduced returns, reduced soil moisture, a more extreme climate, drier soil, reduced water….

Tapuio is a mountain valley. You can clearly see this in any satellite image. (If you want a better view, you can use the following coordinates to find it in Google Earth: 20º47’33.84S 40º51’48.39″W.)

What you can also see is the amount of destruction. Everything on the other side of the ridge has been removed. It’s all pasture. And in the second photo, you can see someone has decided to build a house, for the view, requiring even more destruction. Apparently trees obscure the view. The forest cover is being removed from the center and from the sides, converted into pasture coffee and bananas. 

The municipality repaired the road in parts, which was necessary, but it has sparked talk of “development.” People armed with little more than nostalgia want to move here, bringing with them noise, lights, increased water pressure, dogs, and more destruction. There’s even talk of putting in a bar (yes, bar, for drinking). 

As the water dries up, the drought creeps north, and the dust moves in, this area, already highly degraded, will simply die. And its death will result in the death of the area below. 

But that doesn’t have to be the fate of Tapuio. 

All the land is owned by just a handful of people, all quite willing to sell. And while they are asking a fortune in local currency, it is a pittance converted into dollars. 

ideally, Tapuio could become a private reserve, open only for research. Second best option would be the establishment of an alternative community of like-minded environmentalists seeking to preserve this beautiful and important area. 

I have already written extensively on the possibilities for this area. If something does not happen soon, there will be nothing to save. Every week, more of Tapuio falls to “development.” Every week, gangs of motorcyclists converge on Tapuio to race through the area on the bad road. Every week, more and more people drive up, bringing with them their dogs, killing local wildlife. Every week, the springs are a little drier. Almost every night, hunters decimate the wildlife. Much of this activity is illegal, but there is little enforcement. 

Interested in coming here and seeing Tapuio for yourself? Please do! 

Do you have any ideas you think might be useful? Send them my way.

Want to contribute? I appreciate it. 

You can contact me via WhatsApp +5528992577205

Salve Tapuio!